In-house Care
From WickedSim
Contents |
Basic SimMan Repairs
Many of the repairs that SimMan requires can be handled in house once you become familiar with his internal working parts. He can handle a decent beating before he has mechanical issues unless he is not stored properly or handled properly. We typically require our students to treat and handle him as they would a real patient and when he isn’t in use he lives in his bed or his crate.
Some of the more common hardware issues we’ve faced are:
His lung sounds are squeaky or sound mechanical
lift his chest plate off and apply a thin layer of baby powder.
No chest rise and fall
* Lungs are no longer attached (Laerdal uses zip ties for these and they can come undone).
Look under the chest plate for the tubing to see if its attached on both sides.
If not, usually just reattaching it does the trick.
* Bladder that inflates and deflates to create chest rise is ruptured
(he should have come with replacement bladders; if not order a couple)
* The tube that represents his esophagus can become disconnected and may need to be reconnected
** Cause is often lots of movement in his torso or too much lube from the airway
Lost one or both pulses in the left arm Check to see if he has femoral pulses:
* If he does have femoral pulses
The cable has become disconnected from the device that generates a pulse.
i.To repair this peel back the skin over the pulse that is lost,
but do not remove all of it
ii.Gently lift the box out and you should notice that there is a wire –
usually not connected at this point - under it
iii.Reconnect the wire to the box, it should slide in & the pulse should be restored
iv.Use either glue or a Tegaderm to lay the skin flap back over
v.The cabling can also come disconnected in the shoulder.
Reconnected by accessing the torso
** Cause is often too much movement of the left arm;
There isn’t much give in the wiring.
If you dress him often we have found that dressing him from left to right
helps minimize this.
* If he doesn’t – Call Laerdal Support
Lost or lessened sound or voice
Has he ever had sound?
The cable is a stereo cable and splits into two
The one goes to the touchscreen monitor and provides monitor sounds
The second is for the link box for the sound to go to the speaker in his head
With incorrect connections you can get the monitor sounds out of his head and
him speaking out of the monitor - re-arrange your cable
Do not cover his head with heavy moulage or wigs
His speaker is located at the top of his head.
Software & significant hardware support should come from Laerdal – you can get some level 1 troubleshooting on the phone or your regional representative.
Ensure the computer you run him from meets the minimum software requirements that are recommended. You can run him on less, but the program will run slow.
Remember he is like any other piece of technology…they don’t like water.
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Originally posted on the Simulation in Healthcare List Server run by Society for Simulation in Healthcare Alexis Battista
Continuing Education Coordinator
Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department
