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West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
WVSOM Assists MSHA with International Mines Rescue Competition
Amick explained that the scenario required teams to assess the situation and determine the best course of action to quickly and effectively respond to four simulated patients .
“ One victim had an injury to the left lower leg that caused an arterial bleed . Another sustained an electrical burn that entered through the hand and exited through the shoulder . One , portrayed by a human , was walking wounded and had a nail to the eye . The last was decapitated by a piece of flying metal ,” Amick said . “ Teams had to palpate pulses , correctly apply a tourniquet to stop the bleed , perform CPR , and defibrillate a patient to get his heart rhythm back , and secure the foreign object in the eye of the walking patient and keep him from going into shock .”
When miners from eight nations came together in Beaver , WV , to test their ability to respond to emergencies , the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine ( WVSOM ) was there to help , providing scenario design , staffing and state-of-the-art educational technology for the first aid portion of the event .
Teams of seven members each were scored based on speed , hazard assessment , use of protective equipment , delegation of responsibilities , and other factors in addition to the correct treatment of each patient . The use of human-patient simulators allowed judges to evaluate details that would otherwise be difficult to measure , such as the depth and rate of CPR compressions .
The International Mines Rescue Competition took place September 11-16 at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy , operated by the United States Department of Labor ’ s Mine Safety and Health Administration ( MSHA ). Hundreds of miners and other industry personnel attended the previous biennial competition , delayed since 2018 due to the COVID-19 pandemic .
For the first aid competition , WVSOM exclusively partnered with MSHA to provide human-patient simulators — lifelike robotic devices that serve as stand-ins for living patients — to mimic victims of an accident caused by a compressor blowing up , resulting in an electrical fire . As judges looked on , competitors in a warehouselike building on the academy ’ s campus raced to save lives .
The scenario was designed by Angie Amick , who coordinates the human-patient simulator program at WVSOM ’ s Clinical Evaluation Center ; Abigail Frank , DO , WVSOM ’ s assistant dean for graduate medical education ; Janet Hinton , WVSOM ’ s director of rural outreach ; and Mark Waddell , DO , a WVSOM associate professor of clinical sciences . Waddell , who also served as an assistant to the first aid judges , said the scenario was created with real-world situations in mind .
“ These are based on things miners across the world have experienced over the years ,” Waddell said . “ They ’ re a way to help people practice so that their skills are ingrained in both their muscle memory and their cerebral memory , allowing them to give proper care and not panic when adrenaline takes over .”
Vernus Sturgill , an MSHA assistant district manager who served as a co-lead first aid judge , pointed out that the International Mines Rescue Competition isn ’ t just about winning , it ’ s also about education .
“ Training is one of the main reasons we host these simulations ,” Sturgill said . “ When we talked with teams afterward about what they did right and what they did wrong , a lot of them told us that they weren ’ t taught that way in their country or they didn ’ t have such advanced equipment , so this is a learning experience for them .”
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