antiquity
12-12-2002, 08:03 PM
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Barrie Erskine, Beaver photographer
Victoria Jelicic, a St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School student, gets a first-hand look at how flustered and emotionally distraught an injury survivor can feel when undergoing therapy. Occupational therapist Lorraine Hirsch throws light objects at her and asks questions repeatedly and quickly to stimulate those emotions.
Students get hard lesson on bad choices
High school students step into injury survivors' shoes as part of CHAT program
Paula HenriquesDec 11, 2002
Putting on a pair of pajama pants shouldn't take more than a few seconds, but 24 St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School students soon discovered that trying to put on a pair while feigning paralysis was no easy feat.
As part of Halton Healthcare Services' Community and Hospital Against Trauma (CHAT) program, the students visited Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) last week to see and experience the consequences of bad choices.
According to hospital staff involved with CHAT, those bad choices could lead to a brain or spinal cord injury. For students to understand those implications, they had to assume one side of their body was paralysed, as well as having a vision impairment.
While wearing glasses with tape-covered lenses, and unable to use one side of their body, the students tried to do a mundane act like putting on a pair of pajama pants.
Many couldn't complete the normally simple task and others struggled for several minutes. Some just gave up.
Lorraine Rohm, Health Promotion Manager, said it was the perfect exercise for young people to understand the effects of taking irresponsible risks.
The second activity had them trying to steer a wheelchair while under the influence of the same impairments.
With complaints and grunts like, "It's hard. I can't do it." or, "I'm getting tired," many just went in circles or bumped into walls, probably not even aware that those objections and challenges are felt by adults and youngsters alike everyday in "real" situations.
"Initially, they are all confused. They're not sure how to use their hands. They forget they can use their good leg. It's an eye opener," said Rohm.
In the Rehabilitation Services Department, the students put on adult diapers to get an inkling of how helpless and vulnerable an injury survivor feels.
One student was strapped on a tilt bed and pretended she recently awoke from a coma.
Almost immediately, department staff began throwing light objects at her while asking the flustered student questions like, "What is your name?" and, "Where do you live?"
This chaotic and confusing experiment obviously does not happen in physiotherapy with real patients, but it helped give the students a glimpse into the emotions of an injury survivor.
"You can't simulate brain damage, only simulate how it must feel," occupational therapist Lorraine Hirsch told the group. "She felt frustrated, scared, overwhelmed. Something as simple as asking
your name makes you doubt yourself. We had to put you in the mindset of someone going through it."
In the Diagnostic Imaging Department, students viewed gruesome X-rays of people who crossed the stupid line - nails in knees, golf clubs in skulls, damaged pelvises, and dislocated elbows.
A mock crash scene was setup near the hospital so the students would witness the accident on their way to the hospital.
Unknown to them, they would soon get up close and personal to the accident victim.
During their tour of the emergency department, that victim was wheeled in, hollering and screaming in pain.
His head was bandaged and his clothes in disarray. A bone appeared to be protruding out of his leg.
The students were shocked.
One uttered, "This can't be good to watch." Many turned their backs to the whole scene; not wanting to look. But most were in stunned silence, their mouths hanging open.
The doctors, nurses and hospital personnel worked on the victim as they would an actual emergency case. First they cut his clothes off to see the body adequately and then checked his breathing to see if both lungs were working as they should.
He was then wheeled into the X-ray room. Still no-one suspected that it was a simulation.
The victim was brought back immediately, this time sitting up, a smile on his face, his injuries non-existent. The group recognized him instantly; it was a classmate.
"One reason we did this is that we see too many young people being wheeled in here. It's even a shock to all of us," said Tom Stanton, an OTMH emergency doctor.
"The worst thing to see is when kids get hurt and it could have been prevented. There are bad decisions being made all the time."
He revealed that the simulation was a quicker version of what actually happens in the emergency room.
"It's not like ER (TV show) where it takes two or three minutes to save a life and move on. What you saw here was minute; it can take up to an hour."
He explained the simulation showed the same type of injuries someone in a real motor vehicle accident would have head, chest, and leg injuries.
"He had a chest injury because he hit the steering wheel, and a leg injury because he hit the dashboard. The most dangerous injury is the chest; you can die in two seconds. If the big blood vessels are broken, it doesn't take very long to lose all your blood volume in the chest.
"Air bags and seatbelts save your neck and chest. Airbags sound like a bullet (when they deploy), most people say they hurt, but for the most part, air bags save countless lives and everyone recovers."
Program organizers hope that the day's shocks and eye-opening information will steer students away from making irresponsible decisions in the future.
Hospital Chaplain Catharine Thompson told the students that taking risks can make an extreme difference on the rest of their lives.
"As you go on in your lives, you have to each consider where you draw that line. Not just yours, but who else you may affect as a result of your choices," she said.
The students also heard from a representative from the Trillium Gift of Life organ donation network, injury survivors, and emergency services personnel.
Seventeen-year-old student Victoria Jelicic said CHAT made an impression on her.
"I really enjoyed being a part of it, and will think twice before making certain decision."
Her classmate Kapana Feldano, 18, agreed, saying she appreciated the message.
"I have definitely learned from this experience."
http://www.haltonsearch.com/hr/ob/story/781982p-926587c.html
Barrie Erskine, Beaver photographer
Victoria Jelicic, a St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School student, gets a first-hand look at how flustered and emotionally distraught an injury survivor can feel when undergoing therapy. Occupational therapist Lorraine Hirsch throws light objects at her and asks questions repeatedly and quickly to stimulate those emotions.
Students get hard lesson on bad choices
High school students step into injury survivors' shoes as part of CHAT program
Paula HenriquesDec 11, 2002
Putting on a pair of pajama pants shouldn't take more than a few seconds, but 24 St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School students soon discovered that trying to put on a pair while feigning paralysis was no easy feat.
As part of Halton Healthcare Services' Community and Hospital Against Trauma (CHAT) program, the students visited Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) last week to see and experience the consequences of bad choices.
According to hospital staff involved with CHAT, those bad choices could lead to a brain or spinal cord injury. For students to understand those implications, they had to assume one side of their body was paralysed, as well as having a vision impairment.
While wearing glasses with tape-covered lenses, and unable to use one side of their body, the students tried to do a mundane act like putting on a pair of pajama pants.
Many couldn't complete the normally simple task and others struggled for several minutes. Some just gave up.
Lorraine Rohm, Health Promotion Manager, said it was the perfect exercise for young people to understand the effects of taking irresponsible risks.
The second activity had them trying to steer a wheelchair while under the influence of the same impairments.
With complaints and grunts like, "It's hard. I can't do it." or, "I'm getting tired," many just went in circles or bumped into walls, probably not even aware that those objections and challenges are felt by adults and youngsters alike everyday in "real" situations.
"Initially, they are all confused. They're not sure how to use their hands. They forget they can use their good leg. It's an eye opener," said Rohm.
In the Rehabilitation Services Department, the students put on adult diapers to get an inkling of how helpless and vulnerable an injury survivor feels.
One student was strapped on a tilt bed and pretended she recently awoke from a coma.
Almost immediately, department staff began throwing light objects at her while asking the flustered student questions like, "What is your name?" and, "Where do you live?"
This chaotic and confusing experiment obviously does not happen in physiotherapy with real patients, but it helped give the students a glimpse into the emotions of an injury survivor.
"You can't simulate brain damage, only simulate how it must feel," occupational therapist Lorraine Hirsch told the group. "She felt frustrated, scared, overwhelmed. Something as simple as asking
your name makes you doubt yourself. We had to put you in the mindset of someone going through it."
In the Diagnostic Imaging Department, students viewed gruesome X-rays of people who crossed the stupid line - nails in knees, golf clubs in skulls, damaged pelvises, and dislocated elbows.
A mock crash scene was setup near the hospital so the students would witness the accident on their way to the hospital.
Unknown to them, they would soon get up close and personal to the accident victim.
During their tour of the emergency department, that victim was wheeled in, hollering and screaming in pain.
His head was bandaged and his clothes in disarray. A bone appeared to be protruding out of his leg.
The students were shocked.
One uttered, "This can't be good to watch." Many turned their backs to the whole scene; not wanting to look. But most were in stunned silence, their mouths hanging open.
The doctors, nurses and hospital personnel worked on the victim as they would an actual emergency case. First they cut his clothes off to see the body adequately and then checked his breathing to see if both lungs were working as they should.
He was then wheeled into the X-ray room. Still no-one suspected that it was a simulation.
The victim was brought back immediately, this time sitting up, a smile on his face, his injuries non-existent. The group recognized him instantly; it was a classmate.
"One reason we did this is that we see too many young people being wheeled in here. It's even a shock to all of us," said Tom Stanton, an OTMH emergency doctor.
"The worst thing to see is when kids get hurt and it could have been prevented. There are bad decisions being made all the time."
He revealed that the simulation was a quicker version of what actually happens in the emergency room.
"It's not like ER (TV show) where it takes two or three minutes to save a life and move on. What you saw here was minute; it can take up to an hour."
He explained the simulation showed the same type of injuries someone in a real motor vehicle accident would have head, chest, and leg injuries.
"He had a chest injury because he hit the steering wheel, and a leg injury because he hit the dashboard. The most dangerous injury is the chest; you can die in two seconds. If the big blood vessels are broken, it doesn't take very long to lose all your blood volume in the chest.
"Air bags and seatbelts save your neck and chest. Airbags sound like a bullet (when they deploy), most people say they hurt, but for the most part, air bags save countless lives and everyone recovers."
Program organizers hope that the day's shocks and eye-opening information will steer students away from making irresponsible decisions in the future.
Hospital Chaplain Catharine Thompson told the students that taking risks can make an extreme difference on the rest of their lives.
"As you go on in your lives, you have to each consider where you draw that line. Not just yours, but who else you may affect as a result of your choices," she said.
The students also heard from a representative from the Trillium Gift of Life organ donation network, injury survivors, and emergency services personnel.
Seventeen-year-old student Victoria Jelicic said CHAT made an impression on her.
"I really enjoyed being a part of it, and will think twice before making certain decision."
Her classmate Kapana Feldano, 18, agreed, saying she appreciated the message.
"I have definitely learned from this experience."
http://www.haltonsearch.com/hr/ob/story/781982p-926587c.html