Schools to get defibrillators
By Christie Chapman, NewsAdvance.com
March 26, 2005
AMHERST - By the middle of next month, boxes storing
potentially life-saving equipment will hang on walls
outside main offices of all Amherst County schools.
The county is among the first school districts in
Virginia to have an automatic external defibrillator
(AED) in each of its schools, said school officials
and a representative from the company that sold the
equipment.
The laptop computer-sized boxes are portable and
battery-operated. They are equipped with adult- and
child-sized pads that help deliver an electric shock
to the heart to restore normal rhythm to heart attack
victims before the ambulance arrives.
School officials spent about $25,000 to buy 13 AEDs
plus wall boxes.
Amherst County High School head athletic trainer
Robert Curd compared the AEDs to fire extinguishers
and said anyone should be able to follow instructions
and use one in an emergency.
“In the past, you had to have training to use
one, but these are fully automatic and what’s
called ‘public service,’” Curd said.
“I still think it’s important to have
people trained in CPR before they use them.”
“The General Assembly is looking at funding
these for all of the high schools,” said Amherst
County Superintendent John Walker. “We thought
this was critically important.”
The AEDs are around for students as well as staff
and will be readily available during sporting events
and other community activities.
“They’ll be accessible for sporting events
and things like the Apple Harvest Festival,”
Curd said.
Mart Hartman of Irvine, Calif.-based Cardiac Science,
the company that sold the AEDs to Amherst County schools,
was at the high school Friday to help Curd set up
the new AEDs.
He said it’s crucial for schools to be prepared
because heart attacks don’t only strike older
people.
“Many people think of heart attack victims
as being older,” Hartman said, noting that there
have been heart attack victims as young as 5 years
old.
In addition to putting AEDs on the walls of the county’s
schools, school officials purchased one for the county
administration building and one for the school bus
garage.
To underscore the importance of quick medical attention
heart attack victims need, Hartman cited an American
Heart Association statistic: There is a 10 percent
decrease in survival for every minute of delay in
medical help for heart attack victims.
“Time is of the essence,” he said.
Getting a quick response to an emergency is challenging
in some areas, Curd said.
“We’re a rural county,” he said.
“We have paid rescuers, but we have volunteers
in the evenings and on weekends.”
When someone uses an AED to resuscitate a heart attack
victim, the victim’s information is stored and
can be taken to the emergency room, Curd said.
According to the American Heart Association, at least
20,000 lives could be saved each year with timely
use of AEDs. An American Red Cross newsletter states
that AEDs “dramatically” help save lives
of heart attack victims.
Curd said school officials have taken a proactive
approach to students’ health care, including
hiring new school nurses and health assistants.
While school nurses and other staff will be trained
to use the AEDs at the schools, Curd said there will
also be training for people who work in the administration
building and bus garage. |
