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Parents pushing for defibrillators in schools
Filed under: Teens, In The News, Day Care & Education
Eight years ago, two teenage boys suffered from sudden cardiac arrest while playing lacrosse for their high school team and subsequently died. Since then, the parents of the two boys have worked relentlessly to pass laws in their home states of Ohio and New York, making it mandatory to have a defibrillator available in schools. According to CNN.com, the parents are now pushing for federal funding to have these available in all primary and secondary schools across America.I can't imagine what it was like for these parents to stand by and not be able to do anything for their sons, especially now knowing that having one of these machines on hand could have possibly saved their lives.
I realize that there are so many life-threatening conditions out there, and it is impossible to have the equipment on hand to prevent each and every one, but stats say that over 200,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest every year, of which a quarter are possibly preventable just by having these machines on hand. Schools seem to be an ideal location as well, not only for the students and staff, but they are often used for community purposes as well.
The machines come complete with audio instructions, and are configured in such a way that they analyze the heartbeat and won't deliver a shock unless it is needed. The cost for each defibrillator? $1500. Seems like a small price to pay if it is able to save even one life.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-05-2008 @ 4:11PM
Jenn said...You see these in airports. My company has them mounted near the fire extinguishers. They are in many public buildings (town halls, libraries, etc). In some places, they are available in bus stations, on trains, etc -- they may be in a cabinet accessible to the driver or emergency or security personnel, but they're there.
Why NOT have them in schools? I can't really see what the drawback would be (other than the cost, but come on....that's really not much in the scheme of things).
Reply
3-05-2008 @ 7:54PM
pbhj said...Just having a defibrillator won't help anything ... you need people trained in first aid that know how to use the machine in question.
From the CNN article: "Before they realized the boys were in cardiac arrest, both were dead."
Well you know it takes a while to die of a heart attack, it's not a split second thing. There's no mention in the report of people having performed CPR (eg chest compressions, mouth-to-mouth breathing) and failed. Indeed if they didn't know they were having a heart attack they wouldn't know to use a defibrillator.
They say a defib is 10x better than CPR alone - I'm not trained to use a defib but am trained in CPR, it seems that CPR is still needed.
Defib's great! But _you_ need to learn CPR.
3-05-2008 @ 4:33PM
Jen Henry said...I teach in NY. It was about 4-5 years ago that these were put in schools. At the time most of us just shrugged it off and paid little attention. We were all given a brief training in a staff meeting after school and they were never discussed again.
UNTIL...our 8th grade social studies teacher didn't feel well at the end of the work day and collapsed in the hallway. With students still in the building the other teachers grabbed the defib and went to work. Unfortunately they weren't able to save him and he passed away at 48 years old of a massive heart attack. However it quickly made all of us realize exactly WHY we needed them.
There should be one in every public building where there will be a large volume of people.
http://furoreandfrenzy.com
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3-05-2008 @ 9:45PM
rebecca Biernesser said...Our school are required to have them...they don't...They have a few in the district, but they get shipped around according to needs...
I know this b/c my niece had a heart condition and they had to move one into the school...
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3-06-2008 @ 1:02AM
W. H. Heydt said...I *have* ben trained to use an AED (automatic external defibrillator--the full name of the device) as part of my CPR course. They are truly amazing devices. Besides the things that have been mentioned, if the circuit determines more CPR is needed, the machine gives you the counts for it.
Oh...and that $1500 price? Check the web. They start at $750 last I looked.
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3-06-2008 @ 3:32AM
Karen said...Thanks to these wonderful folks who started an AED fund in memory of their son I have the peace of mind knowing my children's school has an AED
http://www.gregaed.org/
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3-06-2008 @ 7:30AM
Kelly Johnson said...I work in a school system in Kentucky and all of our schools have these.
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