Foreign Body Retrieval Training Device

Today was our clinic's open house. We made a fake esophagus and stomach (pvc pipe and laundry detergent bottle) in to which kids (and adults) could throw toy bugs and then help me retrieve them with the endoscope. While the idea was mine, my technician deserves all the credit for making this fantastic set up with the toy dog who even has a pulse oximeter on his ear and blood pressure cuff on his leg (you can't see these in this picture, though).

It was great fun! Some kids threw in bug after bug after bug after bug. One girl even helped me retrieve a jolly rancher candy she threw down there. The device proved to be a fairly realistic training model (I even crushed the detergent bottle a bit to simulate the canine/feline stomach anatomy). Bob became quite adept at this. And I let James have a try managing the scope and the retrieval device and he did a wonderful job!

My poor hand was a mess that night after 4 hours of endoscopic fun. But it was worth it.