Former Commander Joined PETA's Plea; Facility Now Among More Than 90 Percent of U.S. Programs Using Only Simulators
For Immediate Release:
March 27, 2012
Contact:
Kristin Richards 202-483-7382
Portsmouth, Va. -- After more than two years of urging from PETA, the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) has completely replaced its cruel use of ferrets for teaching intubation skills to physicians and others with modern simulators. In a letter sent to PETA, William Beckman, NMCP's director of professional education, wrote—by direction of the commander—that NMCP's ferret intubation exercises that were approved through April 2012 had been canceled and that now "Naval Medical Center Portsmouth does not use ferrets for training pediatric residents in neonatal intubation." Joining PETA in calling on NMCP to replace its use of ferrets with modern infant simulators was retired Rear Adm. Marion Balsam, a former NMCP commander and former chair of the pediatrics department at the National Naval Medical Center.
"Naval Medical Center Portsmouth's decision means that trainees can now learn how to save babies without hurting animals," says PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo. "Parents want the person entrusted with saving their child's life to have the best medical education available, and that means lifelike simulators, not ferrets."
Intubation training on ferrets involves repeatedly forcing hard plastic tubes down the animals' delicate windpipes as many as 10 times each session in a procedure that can cause bleeding, swelling, pain, scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death. More than 90 percent of U.S. pediatric residency programs use only modern infant simulators for intubation training. NMCP also joins Tripler Army Medical Center, Naval Medical Center San Diego, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences—all of which have already ended the use of animals for intubation training in favor of superior human simulators.
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