Medical Monday; Break a Leg!

Continuing the sagas of a Medical Education Technician in the NHS, building things on a budget of tuppence ha'penny and a bag of wotsits, because we're not (yet) privatised like the Yankee Health Service.

Oh yes, slightly more graphic Trigger Warning this time:

Yeah, something a bit more medical. As well as the Lab stuff, the main bread and butter of the job is in simulating medical scenarios with the Robots. Now, before I joined the job, I had no idea these things existed, but welcome to the world of High Fidelity Medical Simulation.

This is Hallie; The Myth, The Legend, The Robot Girl (From the Future!). She's not a Cylon, Terminator, Doll (living, killer, or otherwise), and you don't spell her name H4LL13 or any other Leet nonsense. She is, however, as close to getting a real child to practise treatments on as possible. She cries, talks, looks at you, changes her expressions, and simulates a full range of medical conditions with variable blood pressure, heart rate, organ sounds, and more. About the only thing she can't do is get up and walk about.

Anyway, one of the scenarios we do a lot of is the good old fashioned Trauma one, with a broken leg or arm. As a parent of three Catastrophe Magnets, two of whom have snapped limbs during their carefree childhood years, yeah this is all pretty familiar.

The original simulated leg break I made a few years ago was two lumps of fibreglass under a kind of belt of latex skin. Not bad, but sticks up a bit too much, and our Old-As-God's-Dog Thomas Splints wouldn't go properly over it.

So, I raided the spare parts boxes. And a scrap bone used previously for I.O Drilling practise.

The plastic air-filled bladder sits between the latex layers, to give it a bit of flex. The top part of the bone is glued in place, the other one pivots ever so slightly. 

The net result is a bone that flexes and moves, simulating two ends of a break rubbing together.

The first test in the field, as it were- part of Hallie's Summer From Hell, and in in-situ training session in the main hospital A&E Department.

The wound was fitted under her leg skin, and more makeup was applied, bruising atop, and grazed knees (complete with dirt and grass). The bruising is rather crude, done with vaseline, fake blood, and eye makeup (we're now investing in some proper wound makeup, as doing sessions like this have provided some justification in opening the department purse to buy the proper stuff).

Note the bulge at the top of her left leg, where the wound is. I also neglected to warn the Faculty that the bone moved and grated realistically. Whoops.

All turned out alright in the end though!  Succesfully treated, wound sorted out, and (simulated) transfer to the trauma unit at Leeds arranged. And with a quick clean-up and a reset, Hallie lives to fight (and plot the downfall of us meatbags) another day.