AR-News: Update on Cat Intubation At UVA

Tue Apr 13 23:49:35 EDT 2004

Forwarded Message: 
Subj:update on cat intubation at Stonewall Jackson Hospital 
Date:4/13/2004 8:19:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:veganvirago at comcast.net
To:veganvirago at comcast.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Wood" <PeterW at peta.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 2:52 PM
Subject: Stonewall Jackson Hospital.

Unfortunately, we were not able to stop the hospital from using cats in
today's intubation training exercises. I have attached an update which
includes our response to a letter UVA is sending out. Thanks again for your
efforts on behalf of the animals; we will keep working to ensure UVA and
Stonewall Jackson Hospital replace their use of animals in medical education
with humane, more effective and readily available non-animal teaching
methods.

Sincerely,

Peter Wood
Research Associate

***************

Stonewall Jackson Hospital chooses cruelty over compassion!

Dear Friends,

Caught off guard by a phone call placed to his home (after our concerns and
those of our members were repeatedly ignored) Stonewall Jackson Hospital
(SJH) CEO Gary Swink admitted that kittens would be used in intubation
training exercises scheduled for today, April 13, 2004.

Swink has refused to recognize the benefits of using humane and more
effective intubation simulators despite the fact that they are in use by
medical professionals around the world. Sadly, the fact that the University
of Virginia (UVA) will, upon request, teach intubation without the use of
cats did not convince Swink that their use isn't necessary for learning
intubation.

Swink (who along with UVA refused to respond to our concerns) somehow
expected us to know that the kittens are not going to be killed at the end
of the training exercises. Even if this is true, it is of little comfort to
the kittens who reportedly must be put on "soft food" due to the trauma
associated with having tubes repeatedly stuck down their throats and used in
future intubation training exercises. Please contact SJH to condemn them for
their cruel and unnecessary use of animals in intubation training exercises.
And please contact UVA to tell them to offer only non-animal simulators for
the intubation courses they teach.

Gary Swink, CEO
Stonewall Jackson Hospital
1 Health Circle
Lexington, VA 24450-2448
540-458-3501
540-458-3504 (fax)
crassist at sjhospital.com

John T. Casteen III, President
The Office of the President
P.O. Box 400224
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22904-4224
434-924-3337
434-924-3792 (fax)
casteen at virginia.edu

Finally, some of you may have received a message from UVA regarding its use
of cats in seminars like the one it conducted at SJH today. Our response is
as follows:

On March 9, 2004 we sent a letter to the University of Virginia (UVA) asking
that it clarify its position regarding its use of animals in medical
education. If UVA had bothered to respond to our inquiry PETA would not have
disseminated what UVA disingenuously refers to as "a partial and incorrect
report" about the university's April 13 Perinatal Continuing Education
Program (PCEP) seminar at Stonewall Jackson Hospital (SJH).

While learning how to put a breathing tube into "premature and other newborn
babies in life-threatening medical emergencies" is vital, learning how to do
so on cats is not. The following excerpt is from a letter the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) sent to SJH and UVA:

"This basic trauma care procedure is performed daily in emergency rooms, and
is normally learned through assisting in clinical situations or using
simulator manikins.

There is a reason why most medical centers do not use animals for intubation
and other surgical training. Many critical aspects, most importantly the
size and placement of internal organs and location of arteries and nerves,
are different in cats and humans. As you know, a cat has a larger and
broader epiglottis, a larger tongue, more copious saliva, a smaller anterior
larynx, and different arytenoid cartilage than a human infant. Further, when
there is a medical necessity for intubation, a cat is properly intubated
while lying on the stomach while a human is intubated while lying on the
back. Therefore, practice on nonhuman animals is not appropriate training
for medical professionals requiring skills in emergency situations.

Surgeons in training learn the skill of intubation and other life saving
procedures through experience working in the Emergency Room. Students best
learn the skills they need to perform on humans, by first observing an
experienced physician and then gradually assisting, with appropriate
guidance.  Animal laboratories provide a poor simulation of real-life trauma
situations, and surgical technique for human procedures cannot be learned
properly on a nonhuman animal because of differences in biology.

Many life-like models, such as Medical Plastics Laboratory's BabyCode and
Gaumard's Code Blue provide excellent intubation training. These models are
readily available, inexpensive, and provide a more exact replica for human
systems than do felines. Both instructors and students alike rate intubation
manikins highly and are pleased with the learning experience."

According to UVA, the cats are "completely anesthetized throughout the
procedure, and are cared for by veterinary technicians when they awake. The
procedure does not involve killing cats." Even when properly anesthetized
for veterinary care, animals may suffer tracheolaryngeal bruising, bleeding,
and scarring, severe pain, and a chronic cough. Improperly anesthetized
animals can and often do suffer at the hands of inexperienced students
during intubation training. Often, animals are repeatedly intubated in a
single session by more than one student, increasing the chances of injury.
This may be why, according to information that we have just received, that
the cats who are used by UVA are placed on "soft food" after the exercises
have been conducted. Furthermore, in some cases, animals die from being
improperly intubated.

Finally, UVA states: "over the past seven years, only four cats have been
involved in this service.when the veterinary staff determines the cats too
old to undergo anesthesia, suitable families are found to adopt them so the
cats can live out the remainder of their lives." Caging animals for years at
a time and using them until they can no longer tolerate anesthesia is a
testament to UVA's unfathomable cruelty and arrogance. Those who have
visited UVA's animal facilities and who have seen for themselves how the
animals are warehoused, have suggested that they would be better off dead.

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the animals

Sincerely,

Peter Wood
Research Associate
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