The baby strains to breathe, its lips turning blue.
Krisie Chrobot, a nursing student, noticed the 3-month-old?s ribs as it sucked in air, struggling for oxygen.
So she turned the child onto its side, then saw the color return to the infant?s face.
This isn?t a real patient. SimBaby, a 9-pound mannequin that recently arrived at Carroll Community College in Westminster, gives nursing students practice at assessing the symptoms of various afflictions.
And while it is a fake baby, its attributes are very real: It cries, whimpers and simulates a baby?s vital signs with heart, breathing and bowel sounds.
Using computer software, faculty members program it to mimic medical emergencies, including asthma attacks and cardiac arrests, as pediatric students try to determine what treatments this robotic baby requires. Summer classes at Carroll Community College begin today.
“SimBaby lets [nursing students] work with a baby who may be having problems before they are actually working with a real patient,” said Nancy Perry, director of the college?s nursing program.
The cutting-edge technology ? SimBaby was born only a year ago ? can provide comfort not only for students still honing their health-assessment skills, but also for real Carroll Hospital Center patients, she said.
“Sometimes, when you are dealing with a real patient and more than one nursing student watches, it can make [patients] a little nervous,” Perry said.
Created by Laerdal Medical in Texas, SimBaby cost $34,000 and was paid for by donations to the college from teachers, staff and community members.
Faculty can remotely watch how students react to SimBaby?s distress through a computer monitor?s camera, school spokeswoman Sylvia Blair said.
“With real baby patients, you have a mom and a dad, and you can?t do the greatest assessments, but with [SimBaby] you have total access,” said Chrobot, of Hanover, Pa., who graduated from Carroll Community College this month.
SimBaby joins a family of two adult simulation patients. The 75-pound SimMan lets students learn how to lift a patient who cannot lift himself.
Treated as either a male or female patient with problems specific to each, SimMan, who can speak in words and sentences, first arrived at the college in fall 2004 to christen the new Nursing and Allied Health Building, and another SimMan was acquired in spring 2005.
