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Northwest Firefighters using new tool to save lives

Posted: Aug 18, 2010 5:39 AM
Updated: Aug 18, 2010 7:41 AM


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TUCSON - Northwest Firefighters are now training with a tool called I-Stan, a life-like mannequin, they say will help save lives. I-Stan, or Stan for short, sweats, coughs, wheezes and his fingers even turn blue when he is low on oxygen.

"This will get the crews ready for what is going to happen in the community. This will allow us to practice so when we get to game time, when we get to the real scenario, our crews will be proficient at their skills," Northwest Fire's MS Training Coordinator Sean Culliney said.

News4 sat in on a training session when Stan was in some serious trouble. He was unconscious and went into cardiac arrest. But after some chest compressions and a lot of work, Northwest Firefighters saved his life. It is an emergency situation, they say they could run into every day on the job.

"You can learn from textbooks how to do the skills but unless you are actually out there performing them and doing them over and over and over again you don't build experience, you don't build competency. So this is going to give them that experience," spokesperson for Northwest Fire Capt. Adam Goldberg said.

Firefighters say that experience can give people a better chance at surviving in emergencies like near drownings and cardiac arrests.

"If we're going to see it out in the field, we want to be prepared for it," Goldberg said.

Stan does not come cheap. The I-Stan runs about $80 thousand.

"If it's your life that we're working on... and we're able to be very efficient which provides you the best chance of surviving your medical emergency, there's no money value," Goldberg said.

Northwest Fire is hoping to get Stan's female counterpart soon. She has all the same features as Stan, but she can give birth. There are also infant versions of the I-Stan.

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