Emergency medical training became significantly more technologically advanced at Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue recently.

Thursday night Firefighter/EMT Alex Majestic demonstrated the many new features associated with the district’s new CPR dummy to the fire commissioners at the board’s regular meeting.

The Resusci Anne Simulator, “Anne” for short, can mimic movements and sounds associated with breathing and give real-time vitals for a variety of situations.

“It kind of blew us away,” Majestic said of its functionality.

In the demonstration, the dummy’s chest rose and fell while it made sounds consistent with mild asthma. Majestic said a person in another room could speak into a device and the sound would come out through the speaker in the dummy’s mouth, as if it were talking.

The conditions, such as the breathing sounds, will change in accordance with what treatment is given.

The program can assess how well the user is treating whatever condition the scenario involves and give a score.

For instance, there is a sensor where a first responder would check for a pulse, and it would record and include in the feedback if the responder forgot that step.

The dummy is made so devices such as a live AED can be used on it, which is something that hasn’t been possible in the past.

“They could just talk about it, but they wouldn’t actually do it because the mannequin didn’t allow for it,” said Chief Ed Hartin about training in the past.

The new mannequin arrived in June, and the district shares it with South Whidbey Fire/EMS. Majestic said he is currently in the process of training the individuals who facilitate training to use it— “training the trainers.”

Kole Kellison, left, and Capt. Jerry Helm perform a demonstration with Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue’s new high-tech CPR dummy. Fire commissioners watched a display of the dummy’s simulated vitals change as the two provided treatment. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times