Marana High School Wins
Heart Defibrillator
By Mark Stine, KOLD News 13
May 7th, 2005
Students write essays all the time. But these Marana
students wrote essays, this time, not for grades,
but for the chance to save a life.
"I wanted to go with contributing something
other than me just being here the past four years,"
Meghan Franco said.
Meghan Franco, Kayla Evanchak and Amber Humphrey
wanted to leave a legacy. That's why they wrote the
essay. The girls wanted Marana High School to have
an automatic external defribrillator.
"We are pretty much in the middle of no where,
and it takes a while for any kind of medical help
to get out here," Franco said.
That's where Sharon Bates steps in. Bates lost her
son, Anthony, almost five years ago because of Hypertrophic
Cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart. He died after
a football workout at Kansas State University.
"But he never had any warning signs, never had
the chest pains, palpitations, dizziness," Bates
said.
Neither did McCollins Umeh. You might remember the
Arizona football player who collapsed at a practice
at the U of A last June and died. Umeh also had an
enlarged heart.
A defribrillator, nearby, could have helped save
both of their lives. "Every minute that passes
is another percent of their survival rate going down
the drain," Bates told KOLD News 13.
So Sharon Bates, with the help of Cardiac Science,
delivers the prize to Marana High School.
They receive one AED, a trainer for the device and
carrying cases, worth more than $3,000.
If someone ever needs to use the AED, you don't need
training, it leads you through the process. "Everything
is going a mile a minute and you don't know what to
do, it will calm you down and you have to pay attention
and do it right," Franco said.
Sharon Bates would like to get a defribrillator in
every school, but before that's possible, she's trying
to get young peoples hearts tested. Bates sets up
Echocardiogram screenings all over the country. At
their last screening at Tucson High School in March,
200 people were tested, 25 heart problems were found,
and five enlarged hearts were identified.
"We have to be prepared to save our own children
and that's what I'm here for," Sharon Bates said.
The Anthony Bates Foundation has another heart screening
planned for Tucson. That screening is scheduled for
September 10th. We'll keep you updated on where the
screening will be. |
