UK - First-aiders are practising on fat dummies to help them cope with increasingly obese heart-attack patients.

Using Fred, students learn how to give chest compressions to fatter patients, how to find the breastbone under all the flab and how to tilt back a fleshy neck to clear the airway.

Steve Perry, who runs a first-aid course in Leicestershire, said: 'These days the clientele you tend to deal with are of a similar size to Fat Fred.

'But up until now we have had to practise on slimline dummies, which is a lot different to real life.'

Resuscitating Fred is harder work than with a conventional dummy, he added.

'You need to push down a lot more with Fat Fred because of the extra padding around his torso. In mouth-to-mouth, you have to give him harder breaths to get the chest to rise correctly.

'And you have to put one hand on the centre of the chest. On the slimmer dummies you can see straight away where the sternum is but on Fat Fred it is a lot harder to identify.'

Fat Fred is made in the U.S. but so far 91 have been sold to hospitals, ambulance crews, fire brigades and first-aid organisations here at £195 each.

Kirk Rossi, of manufacturer Nasco, said: 'Here in the U.S. most people are unfortunately getting bigger and bigger - and it is a problem that is growing in the UK as well.

'In many aspects of life people have had to get used to dealing with heavier people and that is where Fat Fred comes in.

'He shows a first-aider how to lift a heavier person and what they feel like.

'There are a lot of differences between carrying out CPR on an obese person and someone who is slimmer.

'Tilting the neck back can be hard with a heavier person. There tends to be much more weight around the neck and visually it is hard to tell if the neck is tilted back properly.'

The firm has also developed an obese choking mannequin to teach the Heimlich manoeuvre.

Chris Aller of UK distributor Simulaids, said: 'People say it is wonderful to practise on something that is more realistic and more in tune with modern life.'