Stephanie Addenbrooke Photo
“Don’t text and drive,” was the message for city kids Thursday, delivered by the response teams who have seen firsthand the damage caused by drunk driving.
Volunteers from Yale New-Haven Hospital guided 300 middle-school kids, from the city’s Police Athletic Camp, through a day of medical response activities, following the experience of a dummy from the moment of impact through to the recovery process.
Taking over Wilbur Cross High School with dummies, fake blood and plastercasts, the volunteers planned an experience aimed at convincing the next generation of drivers to drive responsibly.
Nick Proto, the hospital’s director of security, said watching the kids go through each of the stations can be moving for the volunteers, as the kids begin to learn and grasp the real-life dangers of driving.
The interactive experience began at a rollover simulation led by Dr. Pina Vialono. The kids were introduced to the scene of the crime, seeing a simulated car roll over. An “adult dummy” driving without a seat-belt fell out of the car in front of their eyes, while the children in the car remained strapped in.
“I’m not going to let my mom drive without a seat belt again,” one of the children said. Similar comments followed it kept coming.
Vialono said a number of the kids had been in car crashes before, in cases of drunk driving or distracted driving. She said a lot of the kids responded to the exercise by saying they would be more forceful when their parents drive without seat belts, shocked by what they had seen. Vialono and Proto said the shock of seeing a dummy overturned could lead to a child preventing a situation where the image would be a lot more shocking.
After seeing the body fall out the car, the kids were taken to an ambulance, seeing how a body is transported to the hospital, where the paramedics also described the emergency operations they sometimes have to do in transit. The paramedics described the ambulance as “bringing the emergency room” to wherever an accident might be.
Te kids were soon interacting with medicine in a whole new way: retrieving small toys from within a dummy using cameras that would be used in the operating room and making plaster casts. Then the day ended with a healing session, where the volunteers talked about the psychological recovery beyond physical repair. Spiritual discussions was followed by workshops with clowns, which Proto explained was just as important as the operation.
This is the second year that Y‑NNH has partnered with New Haven Police Department to provide a day about safety and medical response for participants in NHPD’s Police Athletics League Summer Camp. Next week, the volunteers will lead another program with PAL focusing on “Health and Fitness.” Volunteers from the hospital and local college sports team will help to create a program of healthy living workshops and exercise.