Limbs & Things Helps Charity Train War Doctors With Birth Simulators

Since 2016, the David Nott Foundation surgically trains doctors in areas such as Ukraine, Iraq, Palestine, and Yemen, to save more lives in conflict zones. Limbs & Things has been supplying the charity with products since 2019.

The Foundation’s Hostile Environment Surgical Training (HEST) course is run by volunteer medics from the UK who travel to war zones with specialist training equipment, including Limbs & Things’ realistic and durable simulators.

The HEST course improves the emergency trauma surgery skills of local surgeons and doctors, and better equips them for the incredibly challenging circumstances they face on a daily basis.

During each five-day course, doctors are trained to deal with trauma in obstetrics and gynaecology using the Limbs & Things caesarean section models (the PROMPT Flex and C-section module), as well as other medical fields such as ballistics, head and neck trauma and plastic surgery.

The foundation has also recently taken on two new Limbs & Things products. The Deeply Impacted Foetal Head module trains doctors to safely deliver babies who become stuck in their mother’s pelvis during birth, and the c-section model in a dark skin tone accurately represents the mothers in many of the regions where the David Nott Foundation works.

Nick Gerolemou, Head of Product Management at Limbs & Things, says: “We are pleased that our products are being deployed for such an important training need. We often forget the number of conflicts that continue to affect both armed forces and civilians around the world and the very difficult circumstances they can lead to when it come to medical intervention, therefore the better trained care givers are, hopefully the better the outcome will be for the patient in often very challenging situations.”

Elly Nott, Co-Founder and Chief Executive at the David Nott Foundation, says: “Every year we take our surgical training to the areas that need it most. Our Hostile Environment Surgical Training (HEST) course is designed to improve the skills of local doctors in conflict zones, helping them to save more lives under challenging circumstances. We are dedicated to ensuring our surgical courses remain world-class. Cutting-edge equipment, such as the birthing simulators provided by Limbs & Things, are vital to the success of our training.”

Limbs & Things has been designing and manufacturing medical task trainers and simulators since 1990, enabling highly realistic learning experiences for a range of healthcare professionals. 

Based in St Philips, East Bristol, the multi-million pound 200-strong business is now one of the leaders in its field and exports its products to more than 40 countries worldwide. The company’s expertise is called on to meet new challenges and an ever-expanding medical training market. Its products, address medical scenarios from routine examinations to emergency interventions.

Working within conflict zones often rules out cadaveric teaching, so the HEST course draws on practical exercises, including suturing of prosthetic organs and blood vessels, assessment of war wounds using their one-of-a-kind human model Heston, as well as demonstrations on our bespoke full-body simulator.