A Saskatoon STARS air medical crew is set to head down to Arizona this weekend to take part in the Association of Air Medical Services’ 2018 Sim Cup which runs in Phoenix both on Monday and Tuesday.
Flight nurse Jenny Thorpe and flight paramedic Matt Hogan will represent STARS after competing against other teams here in Saskatoon at STARS and at other STARS locations across western Canada.
The pair have been training for the Sim Cup since April and their co-workers have given the pair multiple scenarios to practice on including a young boy who’s allergic to bees got stung while playing and couldn’t breathe.
The people who Thorpe and Hogan practice on are life size replicas of humans and not real people, the same that will be used at the Sim Cup.
Thorpe says what will separate teams from their competitors at the event is one’s ability to gain control of a situation.
The flight nurse adds her and Hogan have practiced in the dark and have also tried a scenario when they both lost their hearing.
The Sim Cup will heave 12 teams from Canada and the U.S. go head-to-head at the event.
The two are the first team from Saskatoon to represent STARS at the annual competition.