SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Upstate Medical University is proud to be the first academic center and only one of 25 places in the entire world to call the Orpheuos Perfusion Simulator theirs.

The machine will provide students will all the different scenarios that can occur during open heart surgery. It will even re-create unexpected emergencies, such as a power failure.

"The old method of training profusion students was to take somebody who’s never turned the knobs before, take them into the operating room and work on a real live patient. That's somebody's mother. We would certainly, I think everybody would like to believe that everybody behind that heart, lung machine has the skills to sit there. And are not learning it for the very first time on your loved one," said Bruce Searles, Cardiovascular Profusion Department Chair.

The new device will be fully integrated into the curriculum beginning the fall semester.