Meet MATT: Dummy helps train DGMC

Published Aug. 26, 2013
By Senior Airman Madelyn Brown
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., -- In a recent exercise on base here, MATT suffered from a leg amputation following an earthquake that took down the base theater. A security forces Airman came to his aid and applied a tourniquet that successfully controlled the bleeding from the life-threatening injury.

After the self-aid buddy care, MATT was treated and transported by David Grant USAF Medical Center medics to Kaiser Permanente in Vacaville for definitive care.

In addition to traumatic amputation, MATT can suffer from left lower extremity crush injuries, inguinal wounds, head trauma, arterial bleeding from the leg, burns, blast trauma, gunshot wounds, head lacerations, and other simulated internal injuries.

The Multiple Amputation Trauma Trainer utilizes animatronics to create the most realistic scenarios possible for Airmen performing SABC or treatment.

At 170 pounds and with load-bearing joints, MATT is as accurate as a simulation patient comes, said Ivan Fronefield, Sustainment of Trauma and Resuscitation Skills Program simulation coordinator. MATT's body holds the same amount of blood as the average adult male of his stature, around five liters. His skin is made in a Hollywood studio to mimic human skin and his pupils can change to show brain injury.

"We want you to feel like you are saving a real patient," said Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Clyde, 60th Air Mobility Wing Emergency Medical Technician program coordinator. "We want you to fight hard for them in training and it will be engrained in you to fight that hard when a bad situation does occur. MATT does that for us."

Since March, MATT has provided more than 120 hours of training to DGMC medics, as well as training to partner and community units, totaling more than 400 medics at Travis alone to have trained on him.

"We get to work with the all of the base's first responders as well as the county to make where we live a safer place," Clyde said.

MATT has been created to suffer from the three preventable causes of battlefield death, Fronefield said. Those causes are exsanguination, or loss of blood, loss of airway, and tension pneumothorax, which is a compressed lung that usually results from a gunshot wound to the chest in the battlefield.

When activated, these wounds produce blood at a realistic pulsing rate, allowing the remote control to monitor how much blood MATT has lost. This remote also controls the movement of MATT, his breathing, and it monitors the amount of pressure being placed on the body to treat wounds.

"Our students are very used to verbalizing their assessment and treatments, so the first time that they approach MATT and see that he is actually gushing blood from the various injuries, the learner experiences a real flight or fight response," Fronefield said.

While all Airmen receive SABC training, sometimes the verbal descriptions involved don't accurately depict how a trauma patient will act, and how you will react, he said. MATT creates a realistic, yet controlled environment for learners to become familiar with their reactions. This better prepares them for real-world situations.

"Training like this focuses on battlefield medicine and mission readiness," Clyde said. "The more confident you are the more at ease your patients and family members will be when you are providing care."

Fronefield encourages Travis Airmen to take advantage of the training opportunities presented through MATT.

"We need to be able to train for the worst case scenario," he said. "The greatest benefit MATT gives us is the ability to realistically and repeatedly produce catastrophic injuries for learners to treat. This is not just for the medics, it's important for all Airmen to experience this training."

Senior Airman Madelyn Brown