LifeFlight hopes new simulation labs will help air ambulance service save more lives (Portland Press Herald)

(Portland Press Herald) SANFORD, Maine — As soon as the simulated alarm indicating cardiac arrest blared through LifeFlight of Maine’s new simulation lab, trainee flight medic Casey Fiola jumped into action.

In two CPR sessions over four grueling minutes, Fiola repeatedly pressed on the chest of a hyperrealistic dummy as the monitor flatlined.

Then the practice patient began to revive and the monitor indicated that vitals had returned to normal. The patient had been saved.

LifeFlight of Maine flight paramedic Patrick Underwood demonstrates some of the features of an infant medical dummy at the Sanford base on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Fiola demonstrated emergency medical care as the nonprofit opened the Sanford simulation lab and two others in Bangor and Lewiston. The state’s sole air ambulance service recently finished constructing the labs, with funding from the Bangor Savings Bank Foundation.

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