Introducing Ruth Lee Manikins: Now in Stock at DS Medical

DS Medical are really excited to announce we are now an approved distributor of Ruth Lee Manikins.

Ruth Lee is a world-leading provider of life-like manikins and training aids to rescue training experts worldwide including Fire & Rescue Services, Paramedics, Airports and Lifeboat Institutions and Coastguards.

They have been manufacturing rescue training manikins for a quarter of a century and specialise in bringing training to life; making it as realistic as it can be.

Manikins available are as follows:

Confined Space Manikin

Extricating a casualty from a dangerous situation, such as a confined space, requires specialist technical rescue skills, training and practice should an emergency arise.

Credit: Elite Safety & Training & Rescue Limited

Responsible businesses who have workers who might realistically operate in such environments are increasingly making sure that their teams are well trained to react quickly and safely in an emergency situation. However – when training to complete these complicated rescues, it makes sense that you would not want to risk a fellow colleague as a ‘volunteer’ victim! This is when manikins are the ideal solution.

Credit: Outreach Rescue

What the Experts Say

Mike Green, Senior Health, Safety and Wellbeing Advisor at MWH Treatment Limited led the day and said:

“It was a great day where our site team could put in to practice what had been recorded and briefed with regards to what should be done if we need to evacuate a casualty from the 5 metre deep excavation, which also has a 6 metre horizontal 1.5m x 1.5m tunnel (timber heading) at the bottom!

It is an absolute requirement to have such plans in place, particularly when working in confined spaces.

As we don’t want to put any of our employees at risk, especially when using a recovery stretcher, lifting etc, the use of a manikin was the right thing to do to, allowing the team to practice the evacuation safely.

Once the drill was completed, we were able to review and feedback with the team any areas of improvement required, to ensure that any further evacuations would be carried out flawlessly going forward.

It was also great to be able to offer the emergency services the opportunity to come on to a ‘live’ operational site, to allow them to put in to practice the recovery of the manikin from the tunnel and share their own experience.

I understand that the fire and ambulance service don’t often have the opportunity to undertake joint exercises similar to what we did, and it was also noted during a close out briefing with the emergency service that they were able to use the exercise to identify their own areas of improvement going forward.

I was very pleased with the event - the exercise went brilliantly and our team got a lot from it. These learnings have been cascaded through Thames Water and my parent company, and all have praised the day.”

Patient Handling Manikin

The Patient Handling Manikin has been developed out of the desire to help improve lifting and handling training within the healthcare industry. The frequency of musculoskeletal injury within the healthcare sector is statistically higher than in other industries and therefore regular, effective training has never been so important to prevent injuries and sickness.

Credit: Jenny Murphy – LI- Surrey & Sussex Patient Handling

The Coronavirus pandemic impacted the training techniques of safe patient handling. At the start of Covid restrictions, it became clear that using staff to play the role of the patient needed to be reviewed to comply with Government guidelines.

At Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, the initial decision was to continue moving and handling training face to face, but with less staff and in larger room. Sessions were conducted by the demonstration of techniques, but it soon became clear that this was not as effective as hands-on training.

Moving and Handling Advisor from the Trust, Margaret (Marg) Huxley, saw discussions around the use of manikins for patient handling training on the NBE forum. After researching manikins and consulting with us, Marg purchased her first manikin to deliver moving and handling training.

Months later, after using Ruth Lee patient handling training manikins for all training sessions, Marg has no intention of making the manikins redundant post-covid! 195 staff in the Trust have been trained using a manikin, since March 2021.

Bariatric Training Manikin

Obesity is a very real problem in the UK and across the world and judging by government figures and anecdotal evidence, the problem is rapidly getting worse. The need for heavyweight manikins has never been greater.

Credit: Rescue College - Mohni

All sectors of the emergency and rescue services can or will experience incidents that involve obese / bariatric individuals. This manikin will aid them with training allowing for the development protocols, policies and plans to deal with the heavier casualties.

Increasingly there are incidents within the commercial sectors that see an increasingly heavy clients, such as Airlines, Cruise Ships, Care Homes & Prisons, not all situations will require the emergency services, so could your staff manage? An obese dummy might help your staff avoid injury through poor patient handling skills.

Casualties / Victims / Patients / Clients / Staff / Passengers come in all shapes and sizes - can you safely manoeuvre a larger person? 

What the Experts Say

“Bariatric Rescue is a line of work that is becoming more and more frequent in the Fire and Rescue Sector. Our Service is no different.

To help Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service work more effectively and efficiently with Bariatric Patients, our Service purchased a number of Bariatric dummies from Ruth Lee.

This meant that we could set up realistic training scenarios and put into practise some of the manual handling techniques, operational procedures and practical considerations for being dignified and caring when dealing with people of this size.” 

Guy Tadman, Watch Manager at Trowbridge Fire Station, (part of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service)

Water-Fillable Bariatric Conversion Suit

Positioning a full-sized and full-weight bariatric manikin can be difficult depending on the training. Therefore we can offer a solution for Bariatric Training.

In addition to our Bariatric Manikins, you can now purchase a water-fillable suit which converts any adult Duty Range Manikin into a Bariatric!

Credit: Ruth Lee testing with Outreach Rescue

This addition to the Bariatric range allows customers to place a manikin in situ before adding the weight. It is the perfect choice where space is limited or when there are not enough people to position a full-weight bariatric manikin in place ready for training.

What the Experts Say

“Your Water-Bariatric suit is a game changer for bariatric training. We have rigged exercises where they could not previously be set up. It has been a massive eye opener for some as to the reality of the situations they may be faced with. It is not possible to have a 'suitable and sufficient' rescue or evacuation plan, if you have not tried it and trained it.”  

Tony Emsley, Managing Director at Outreach Rescue.

Advanced Water Rescue Manikin

An exciting collaboration between medical simulation experts Lifecast Body Simulation and rescue training manikin manufacturers Ruth Lee, allows crews to complete a full, simulated drowning scenario, from rescue to resuscitation - using just one manikin.

Credit: Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service

What the Experts Say

“It would enhance our training dramatically. Not just from the perspective of how it feels to lift a real weight out of the water and what it’s like to resuscitate a realistically feeling body, but it also puts an additional layer of emotional reaction on top.” 

Liz Baugh, Red Square Medical UK

Offshore Training Manikins

This model is suitable for a range of training including working at height and water rescue. Its weight makes it a realistic casualty to rescue from accommodation areas, engine rooms or drilling platforms. It will withstand a fall of 5-6 meters into water and float vertically to simulate a live person in the water.

It is suitable for emergency BA training, helicopter safety and escape chute training. Used extensively for training in the wind farm industry, ports and other offshore industries.

If used in open water it is recommended the use of a buoyancy aid.

Credit: AxelWinchMan – Germany – Offshore 2020

Duty Range Training Manikins

Designed for professionals that save lives. The Duty Range Manikins are ideal to enhance your training in the following fields:

Confined Space, Urban Search & Rescue (USAR), Road Traffic Collision (RTC), CBRN & general handling exercises. This is the best selling training manikin available on the market today; commonly known as the ‘Drill Dummy’!

Credit: British Firefighter Challenge