06:40 AM PDT on Thursday, July 15, 2004

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - What Resusci-Annie did for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the same Norwegian company wants to do for infant care - with a little help from Seattle’s Children's Hospital.

KING The mannequin's physiological responses mimic that of a human.

She breathes, she cries she goes into full-blown cardiac arrest - that's Simbaby.

“It's very difficult to make a human being and it's very difficult to make a baby,” said manufacturer Geir Berglyd.

So when the Norwegian firm, which has had success with adult-size patient simulators, wanted to make an infant version, it turned to four clinical tests sites in the U.S., including Seattle's Children’s Hospital.

The goal was to make the mannequin respond as realistically as possible.

"You look at the baby and you think oh that just looks like a plastic model, but what we find is that as soon as you start running the scenario.. and you have all your physiological parameters, your heart rate, your blood pressure, your oxygen saturation and those are behaving as you normally see them, then it becomes very lifelike,” said Dr. Daniel Rubens of Children’s Hospital.

This makes it the perfect teaching tool. However, as expected, there were many problems to overcome first. The windpipe was too difficult to intubate so it was back to the drawing board. Thirteen months later, the baby responded just as expected. Other than adding a few cosmetic changes - eyes and other features - Simbaby is almost ready for market. She's expected to cost about the same as a mid-size car.

The mannequin is so lifelike, the company often has trouble going through airport security. As you might expect, X-ray screeners always do a double take when they see a baby in a suitcase.