By Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You can’t waste time when someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest.
Not even a minute, especially when you’re trying to save a life with a defibrillator. You have a three- to five-minute window to attach the device and deliver the shock that, it is hoped, returns the heart to a normal rhythm, get it to pumping.
Sudden cardiac arrest claims an estimated 325,000 lives each year. The incidence of it is rare on school grounds, but it happens. Defibrillation can save lives, but it takes training to set up a program that really works.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta stands ready to assist. The hospital network offers a program for schools that want to implement a comprehensive defibrillation program. It’s called Project S.A.V.E. (Sudden Cardiac Death: Awareness, Vision for Prevention and Education).
“Since August 2004, there have been 18 probable sudden cardiac deaths in Georgia schools that we know about,” Jason Rollins, a spokesman for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, told me in an e-mail.
“Of those, there have been two elementary school students, three middle-schoolers, six high school kids and seven adults. Two of these have been from Gwinnett, both high-schoolers. Both cases were athletes preparing for athletics or participating in athletics.”
More than half of Gwinnett’s schools stock defibrillators, also called AEDs — automated external defibrillators. And someone on those campuses has been trained to use the life-saving devices.
“Most people understand that part,” said Alison Ellison, the coordinator for 2-year-old Project S.A.V.E.
But it takes more than a defibrillator to prevent a sudden cardiac death. With Project S.A.V.E., schools learn the do’s and don’ts.
They learn that at least five faculty members should be first-responders, people trained to use the AED. One of those people should be the school nurse. They learn that someone at the school should be assigned to oversee the program, to be responsible for maintaining the defibrillator and whatnot.
And they are taught the importance of communication, to make sure everybody on campus knows what an AED is, and how to react if they see someone collapse, suddenly stricken.
“Everybody needs to know enough about the plan to understand so that somebody can grab the AED and get to the victim,” Ellison told me. “It’s not just enough to have a defibrillator. You have to have the other pieces in place to make it work.”
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta provides money for training faculty, but individual schools buy their own AEDs, a $900 to $1,800 investment. Statewide, 284 schools have signed on to Project S.A.V.E. Two are in Gwinnett — B.B. Harris and Brookwood elementary schools.
At Brookwood, the PTA helped pay for the life-saving device. It hangs on a wall outside the clinic, encased, ready.
“I could grab it and go,” said Sally Rihm, the school nurse. “Each minute counts. It’s one of those things you own, but that you hope you never use.”