'Candy' the mannequin teaches SLO doctors and nurses how to handle birth complications

A new mannequin at French Hospital Medical Center gives doctors and nurses hands-on experience on what to do if a pregnant woman experiences complications during birth.

The mannequin, nicknamed "Candy" by French Hospital staff because she arrived on Valentine's Day, can simulate all stages of labor, various medical emergencies and high-risk incidents, such as hemorrhaging, according to Kailey Cox, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

The mannequin is anatomically correct and functional, so it can simulate breathing, blood pressure, cardiac rhythms and more.

"It's more hands-on and we're able to simulate more emergency situations that maybe don't come up very often," Cox said. And no, the mannequin can't do all of this on its own. Candy is connected to software that an operator uses to conduct the simulations.

Candy is the latest addition to a mannequin family that includes an adult man, an adult woman, a child and a newborn. The first of these mannequins arrived at French about six years ago, Cox said.

All of the mannequins can make noise, like coughing or moaning, in order to signal that something is wrong, Cox said. Candy doesn't scream or yell, but she can make breathing sounds and say "yes" or "no" in response to a question.

It's uncommon for a community hospital like French to have mannequins, Cox said. They are more typically found at big teaching hospitals, such as UCLA Medical Center and Stanford University Medical Center.

"UCLA and Stanford are pretty far away," Cox said, noting that doctors and nurses get trained multiple times a year. "This allows us to train everyone in-house and provide this education that will make providing healthcare that much easier for us."

This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 3:28 PM with the headline "'Candy' the mannequin teaches SLO doctors and nurses how to handle birth complications."