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Bay Area Firefighters Receive Pediatric Training

MENLO PARK (KCBS) – Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in is partnering with Bay Area firefighters to improve the care of kids in medical emergencies, a first of its kind program in the United States.

More than 200 Bay Area firefighters are being trained on different pediatric emergencies.

Lucile Packard Resuscitation Educator Lynda Knight said they make the exercises as real as possible by using true to life baby mannequins.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"It breathes, it cries. We can infuse IVs into it and give it medications," Knight said. "So it simulates as close to a real baby as possible so that they can get some of the feedback by using their own equipment."

John Kammeyer, the Emergency Medical Services Division Chief for Central San Mateo County's Training Division, said it's great for firefighters to get this type of training because they have little experience responding to these types of rare calls.

"We try to replicate those infrequent types of calls here, stuff that they may see four or five times in their whole career. We want them to be able to handle any situation that comes across in their career," said Kammeyer.

Dr. Saraswati Kache, a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Physician at Packard Children's Hospital, said it's important for firefighters to be aware of the different psychological parameters they could face.

"For example, one of the first things you think about when a patient is shot is, are they in some sort of hemorrhagic shock, meaning are they losing blood?" Kache said. "But the amount of blood that you're going to give an adult is going to be different than the amount of blood that you would give a pediatric patient."

Kache said it's important that firefighters understand the differences they may face when dealing with a medical emergency involving a child.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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