After more than 25 years using live cats in its pediatric advanced life support (PALS) course, Heartland Regional Medical Center is making the switch to state-of-the-art mannequins.

The intent behind using cats always has been to provide as lifelike a situation as possible in training medical professionals to intubate the small airways of infants and other young children, Heartland has said in the past, and cats' airways are similar to those of children. The hospital drew criticism from PETA in June for its use of cats, but maintained that the cats were treated humanely and that they were its best training option - until recently.

"One of the issues is that any time you do training, you want to use best practices," said Charlie Shields, Heartland's chief marketing/communications officer. "For many years, that was live cats, but now we have these simulators (that) very closely simulate what happens in a child."

Heartland has purchased two of the mannequins - which cost $46,000 each - and will use them for the first time in its Sept. 30 PALS course. The mannequins can be made to simulate a variety of conditions, such as airway constriction and swelling of the throat and tongue.

The decision to use mannequins wasn't made as a result of the contact PETA made with the hospital earlier in the summer, Mr. Shields said, but "as technology develops, certainly PETA has brought this to the forefront."

"This probably is the closest we've seen to a representation of a live situation," he added of the mannequins.

Erin Wisdom can be reached

at ewisdom@npgco.com.