That's the scenario about 400 students faced Oct. 30 at the Simulation Lab at Health Sciences North's Sudbury Outpatient Centre.
Volunteers dressed in gory zombie gear and led high school, college and university students through demonstrations of suturing, CPR, defibrillation and crisis skills management using the lab's high-tech medical simulation dummies.
“It's fun and it's important,” said Dr. Rob Anderson, medical director of the simulation lab.
“Any time we can teach somebody how to put a defibrillator on, we can save somebody's life. So if everybody walks out of here simply knowing how to do that, then all those defibrillators that are in hockey arenas and all over the city have some benefit.”
A volunteer in full zombie gear demonstrates the use of a defibrillator with a group of Lockerby Composite School students at Health Sciences North's Sudbury Outpatient Centre Oct. 30. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
He said he thought the demonstrations gave them an idea of how to work to save someone's life in a stressful situation. And, given the popularity of zombies among today's youth, it made for a better connection between hospital staff and students.
“This type of thing, with the hospital reaching out to our students, is a great opportunity,” Dean said.
“It's more than I expected when I signed up for the trip. It was amazing, the work they did. I look forward to seeing more things like this in the future.”
Grade 11 Lockerby student Megan Mackay said she thought the event was a bit “scary” but well done.
“It was fun,” she said. “It was professional. It was scary but very well put together. It still kept it a learning experience.”
