Firm tackles the weighty subject of obesity with ‘super-size’ dummies
A NORTH Wales firm has developed mannequins weighing 40 stone to help train emergency crews battling the country’s obesity crisis.
Ruth Lee, which is based in Corwen, has developed the obese dummies to help firefighters, ambulance crews and other emergency agencies train to move overweight people.
The firm said that tragedies such as the Grenfell disaster and recent terrorist attacks had made agencies think more about how they would move obese casualties.
Sarah Hampton, from Ruth Lee, said that while they sold their normal-sized mannequins to emergency services across the UK, there was now increasing demand for their 90kg, 180kg and 260kg dummies.
She said: “Interestingly, our international distributors are selling them more frequently too, with Australia, the USA and Germany all buying a high number in the past five years.
“In the next year, due to the increased number of inquiries we are getting, we anticipate doubling our sales of bariatric mannequins.
“We have also sold bariatric mannequins to the RAF, universities and specialist healthcare equipment manufacturers too.”
The cost of the 40st dummy is over £2,000, but they are discounted for emergency services.
Ms Hampton added: “In our experience, and from customer feedback, there is often some disagreement over who is responsible when a bariatric person requires medical assistance/hospitalisation.
“More and more ambulance services are investing in specially equipped bariatric ambulances.
“But they often need to call on the fire service due to their technical expertise in extricating people from difficult access areas.
“At trade shows, and when out on the road visiting customers, we have heard many sad stories where an extremely obese person has been trapped in their own homes and needed extricating by the fire and rescue service.
“We were even told about a very sad case where a lady had a heart attack in the bath and died because crews were unable to free her quick enough
“The complexities of such a rescue are immense and many fire and ambulance crews take part in specialist training to gain expertise in these circumstances.”
The firm also recently came up with a water-fillable bariatric suit, which emergency crews can place in a spot that is difficult to access before filling it with water and carrying out rescue training.