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Originally Posted by BayStateRef
While we're at it, let's put one in every Denny's. And every McDonald's. And every church. And every automobile. And then....let's put one in....
I presume the Ohio schools are as large as those around here. And I presume that they are "locked" except for the gym on weekends when the youth leagues play. So how many defibs do we need? One for the gym; one for the auditorium; one for the cafeteria. Then one for each floor. And then....make sure to have a paramedic or RN or EMT or someone proficient enough to use it in an emergency.
I don't believe the answer to this tragedy is defibs in the school. Sometimes tragedies occur. We don't always know what's happening with a human heart. Let's not pretend we can prevent every death, "if only....."
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Using that logic we shouldn't have fire extinguishers anywhere either, afterall, they can't prevent every fire. The more that you can do to protect the athletes, or help to revive them after they collapse, the better off everyone will be. AED's are still kind of expensive ($1500+) but that cost is well worth it if it is used just once to help save a life.
Here is a direct quote from the American Heart Association on AEDs and their use:
About 250,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. Defibrillation is the only known therapy to treat an individual in cardiac arrest. The delivering of an electrical shock to the heart can restore the heart's normal rhythm.
However, it must be done within minutes of the arrest. For
every minute that passes without defibrillation, a victim's chance of
survival decreases by seven to 10 percent. After as few as 10 minutes, very few resuscitation attempts are successful
In addition to athletes dying (sp?) on the court, you also have to think about officials. In the North Texas area alone, at least TWO officials have died in the last year while on the court working games. Could an AED have saved them, I don't know, but it definately would not have hurt their chances.
Give at least the athletic department an AED. From there, you can look to add additional AEDs based on the size of the school and the population of the school, just like you do for fire extinguishers. Give it 10 years, and everywhere that you find a fire extinguisher, you will find an AED.