LETTER: UVa's use of cats in medical training deserves fuller review of facts

By: Daily Progress Staff | The Daily Progress
Published: November 25, 2011

I write to correct the inaccuracies and false claims that permeated a recent Associated Press story regarding a delicate medical training procedure that saves the lives of infants who are on the verge of ceasing to breathe.

The story about the use of cats to teach residents and first responders how to perform tracheal intubation on infants failed to include critical facts about the training procedures at the University of Virginia.

As background, more than 1 million newborns either die or are seriously injured from perinatal asphyxia each year, but the majority can be successfully resuscitated if an adequate airway can be secured – in less than a minute after the breathing difficulty has been detected.

While we use simulators whenever possible, we have carefully determined that in the case of infants weighing less than four pounds, no current simulator provides adequate training in tracheal intubation – insertion of a tube into a baby’s airway when he or she is in distress. Our training is invaluable in the seconds one has to successfully intubate a sick newborn.

At the same time, we continue to work actively on an adequate simulator substitute.

Here are some important facts about this life-saving procedure.

• We conduct two or three training sessions a year here in Charlottesville, with approximately 10 trainees per session.

• Three cats are used in rotation, never all of them in one session.

• During a session, cats are anesthetized and carefully monitored. No cats have died or suffered permanent injuries as a result of this training.

• After the cats retire, they are adopted.

• The USDA regularly inspects our facilities and procedures. The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care accredits our program.

Our physicians believe that the approach we take is far more humane than sending physicians into practice to have their first real-world experience with this life-saving procedure occur on someone’s critically ill newborn baby.

Our goal in training physicians is to save the lives of their tiniest patients. We take great care of the three cats that have become our working partners in training physicians to help us reach that goal.

Carol Wood

(Wood is associate vice president for public affairs at the University of Virginia.)