SAN DIEGO -- A new patient at the University of California San Diego Medical Center is helping doctors, nurses and other medical staff improve their life-saving skills. He coughs, talks and breathes, but he's not a real person.

"Sim Man" is a high-tech training dummy with a computer program that controls its heart, breathing, blood pressure and other vital signs.

"Sim Man is a human simulator that can simulate almost every physiological response that a person can have," UCSD emergency physician Dr. Colleen Buono said.

"You can watch him breathe , you can listen to his heart sounds, his lung sounds, listen to gastric sounds," she said.

During one training session, Sim Man had a heart attack.

"I can't breathe and my chest hurts, help," he said.

"We don't have a pulse," one of the trainees said.

Drugs were pumped through an IV into Sim Man's arm vein and trainees shocked his heart back into rhythm.

Even though Sim Man is just a dummy, doctors and nurses said he's pretty close to the real thing.

"Well, I think it was very much more life-like than the training that I had previously in the field," UCSD pharmacy resident Lillian Udom said.

"I think it is definitely helpful. It's good for people to experience," UCSD anesthesiologist Dr. Tim Moss said.

Sim Man plans on an extended stay at UCSD, so everyone can have the opportunity to improve their life-saving skills.

"They would much rather make a mistake on a mannequin, than make a mistake on a real person," Buono said.

About 650 paramedics and emergency medical technicians will start training on Sim Man in March. The high-tech mannequin costs more than $30,000.