Meet Vivien, SPFD’s new ‘medium fidelity’ medical manikin

By Brandi Makuski

“It was kind of creepy to open that box and see her for the first time.”

Division Chief Anthony Ewing, who oversees training and safety at the Stevens Point Fire Department, was talking about Vivien, the department’s new tool in medical training. The 80-pound manikin is modeled from a 3-D scan of 77-year-old British actress and psychologist Vivien Bridson‘s body.

Ewing said she’s almost as real as a live person. Vivien, created by U.K.-based LifeCast, is a medium-fidelity manikin, meaning she comes with breath sound, heart sounds, bowel sound, and internal pouches that can be filled with simulated blood. The eyes can be switched out to simulate cataract or a blown pupil.

“She’s got everything that a geriatric female would have. We looked back at the data from last year and found that a majority of the patients we saw, or assisted, were in this age range and female,” Ewing said. “So we said, ‘Why not have a geriatric manikin so we can get a better understanding of how to handle them?'”

Ewing said older patients have “paper-like skin” that can make locating an IV site difficult. Vivien allows medics to practice starting IVs and IOs, insert catheters, and other procedures on a lifelike body. Paramedics can even sit her up and wash her hair, if called for.

“With her being a silicon manikin, it acts just like a real person. So if you were to drag this along the floor, you’re going to tear the skin, just as you would a geriatric person,” he said.

Vivien also has removable dentures, mimicking a real patient that paramedics might need to intubate.

“If we intubate her, we’ll get a chest rise, if we put an IO into her, we’ll actually get a little blood draw back,” Ewing said. “With a geriatric patient, you start to see the bone structure break down as you get older, and you can see, if you’re doing (chest) compressions, where you are on an older female’s rib cage. We can even use a LUCAS device on her.”

Fire Chief Jb Moody said the manikin cost the department a little over $20,000, but he expects it will be more than worth the price tag.

“This will be invaluable in terms of training, and will help us save lives,” Moody said earlier this month.

Although most firefighters across the county have some type of medic certification, Stevens Point is the only full-time fire department that requires all of its firefighters to also carry, and maintain, full paramedic certifications.

Most exciting about Vivien is the technology she comes with, Ewing said. Her iSimulate program allows SPFD paramedics to download scenarios, “actual calls we’ve been on,” to practice.

“We can plug in all the vitals and it duplicates the call on Vivien,” he said.

Vivien was ordered late last year and took about six weeks to arrive in a large wooden box. Department members underwent training to use the manikin on Feb. 16.

“We definitely want to use this for training with the First Responder groups in the county,” he said. “We’ll work with anybody to ensure they can practice procedures in a situation where it’s as real as possible.”