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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
It takes a couple of dummies to make to make Brooklyn’s next batch of emergency medical technicians smarter.
A pair of high-tech mannequins that vomit, cough, bleed, convulse, and even cry tears of simulated pain are part of the hyper-realistic training program at Kingsborough Community College’s new paramedic certification course — Brooklyn’s first — giving trainees an edge over graduates from other schools.
“These mannequins can simulate breathing, lung sounds, heart sounds, sweat, vomit, and even convulse,” said the college’s interim president Dr. Stuart Suss. “This sole fact represents a huge advantage for our students so that they can train and practice in a truly realistic environment.”
The dummies, which cost $100,000 each, will help the school’s prospective paramedic professionals realistically practice life-saving techniques, without the stress of actually having someone’s life on the line.
During a demonstration, a Kingsborough employee induced all manner of heinous afflictions upon one the unfortunate new plastic teaching assistants.
Mercifully, the dummy is not loaded up with simulated vomit, but tears did stream down its checks as it made stomach-wrenching gagging noises. Later, with the press of a button, it convulsed in the throes of some epileptic fit.
The program’s realism goes beyond the high-tech dummies. Kingsborough’s is the only paramedic program in the city that uses actual ambulances in its curriculum, and early next year the program will unveil a laboratory room that accurately simulates a hospital’s emergency department.
Before Kingsborough could offer the new paramedic program, it had to get the approval of an alphabet soup of city and state agencies, allowing graduates to take paramedic examinations for New York City, New York State, and also for the National Registry, which allows those students who pass to work in 45 states where the National Registry is accepted.