Patti LaBelle's old tour bus in town to help train emergency workers

Patti LaBelle's old tour bus is in the Bay Area, but this time, it's not here for a concert.

LaBelle's old bus is still touring, which is music to the ears of about 100 Emergency Responders who are receiving training on how to handle H1N1 Virus outbreaks.

The black emergency room and ambulance simulator will be parked outside the Crisis Center of Tampa through the end of this week. Crisis Center officials have extended an invitation for the free training to local fire rescues and hospitals.

The service is part of the Emergency Medicine Learning Resource Center, an Orlando-based non-profit organization funded by the Florida Health Department to provide weapons of mass destruction training to all emergency responders throughout the state. This time, they are including training for the H1N1 Virus.

The bus will be in Tampa until Friday September 11th, said Eric Dotten, the Clinical Program Coordinator for the organization.

Dotten said their organization decided training emergency tesponders on what to do when they encounter people with the Swine Flu symptoms is extremely important.

"With the ever growing threat of the N1H1 Virus, they should know those signs and symptoms as well," said Dotten. "We train from first responders through physician level," he said.

"H1N1 is or the pandemic outbreak is what we've been teaching for the last two years now saying that it's coming well now it's here," he said.

He said the training allows EMT's to make mistakes in the lab so they don't make mistakes with the general public.

EMT Ken Kneiss went through the 35 minute training. He said it was like a crash course, and different than anything he has ever done. He said the dummy used in the simulation is very realistic.

"He was breathing, all lung sounds were good and everything it was pretty good and then the way you can actually see his head kick back and he stops breathing and then goes pulse-less, other than the plastic it was pretty realistic," said Kneiss.

"We believe what they do here on the lab is what they'll do on the streets," said Dolten.