DEFIBRILLATORS IN SCHOOLS: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
Recess turned tragic last week in Lake Oswego, Oregon when a 5th grader died during a game of flag football. The deputy state medical examiner who performed the autopsy determined that the boy died from blunt force trauma that stopped his heart. Doctors agree that this was an "extremely unusual" and "very, very, very rare" injury. Students, teachers and parents in the Lake Oswego community are still reeling from this tragedy and my heart goes out to them. It is heartwrenching to think that a child could be taken so abruptly and unfairly from his family.
The American Heart Association reports that more than 200,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest each year and that up to 50,000 of these deaths could have been prevented with an automated external defibrillator (AED). An AED is a portable automatic device used to restore normal heart rhythm to patients in cardiac arrest. Schools are a logical place to put defibrillators, doctos say, because on any given day as much as 20% of a community's population passes through its schools.
In response to a number of preventable children's deaths, the US House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this summer which will establish a grant prgram throught e Department of Education that will provide schools with funds for lifesvaing AEDs and AED/CPR training. The bill was modeled on a successful AED program recently implemented in Ohio which has already saved 13 lives. U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH), the bill's sponsor, said, "The availability of AEDs can be the difference between life and death when an individual goes into sudden cardiac arrest. Schools are central gaterhing places in our communities, and placing AEDs in our schools will not only potentially save the lieves of students enrolled there, but they will be available for teachers and sfaff, parents and volutneers, and the many other members of the communicty who pass through our schools every single day."
Illinois is ahead of the game. Pursuant to Illinois's Physical Fitness Medical Emergency Preparedness Act all schools are required to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) available in their indoor physical fitness facilities.
All thirteen schools in Lake Oswego have portable defibrillators. Unfortunately, the school staff did not use it on this young child. As made tragically clear last week, legislation requiring AEDs and AED training does little good if those trained to use the AED fail to use it in situations that warrant it.
