AEDs will provide schools an edge in safety

Monday, Dec. 1, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Source: National Center for Early Defibrillation, Nevada Chapter of the American Heart Association.

A person who suffers sudden cardiac arrest at a Clark County high school may have a better chance of survival thanks to a new state law.

During the last legislative session lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 441, which requires counties with more than 100,000 people to have Automated External Defibrillation Devices in every high school by July 1.

Battery-powered and about the size of a laptop computer, AEDs are used to give electrical shocks to someone experiencing an abnormal heart rhythm.

The state didn't allocate money for the devices, however, and the Clark County School District is currently looking for vendors, grants and possible donors to supply schools with the defibrillators.

Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, and a North Las Vegas Fire Department captain, lobbied on behalf of the bill and said he was disappointed funding wasn't attached to the final legislation.

"To make them a requirement in the first place is a step in the right direction, and hopefully this is a cause the community can really get behind," said Oceguera, who has spent 12 years as a paramedic.

"Even when we respond to a call in less than five minutes, it might take us another 10 minutes to run through a mall or a casino or a high school. The AED makes sure you get the care you need right away."

In cases of sudden cardiac arrest, every minute that lapses between the onset and the heart being restarted decreases a person's survival rate by 7 to 10 percent, said David Slattery, education director of the emergency medicine department at University Medical Center.

One out of every 500 people have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy -- a congenital disease in which the heart muscle thickens and blocks blood flow -- although many never know it until they experience sudden cardiac arrest, Slattery said.

A recent study found one of the best places to have sudden cardiac arrest in Nevada was a Las Vegas casino with an AED, Slattery said. The survival rate for those patients was 74 percent, compared with the statewide average of about 9 percent, Slatterly said.

"The American Heart Association says if an AED is used just once in five years, it is well worth the cost, and I have to agree," Slattery said.

The devices are nearly foolproof, said Mark Tondryk, a biology teacher at Coronado High School who shows students how to use AEDs as part of his sports medicine class. A color chart shows where to place the pads on a person's chest, and the machine automatically takes a reading of the heartbeat to determine whether defibrillation is needed, Tondryk said.

"It's only a matter of time before everyone knows what an AED is," Tondryk said.

The district's plan calls for each high school to have and AED coordinator and at least 10 employees trained in both CPR and using the device. Tondryk called this a good start, but said he would prefer every elementary and middle school be outfitted, as well.

"Having an AED increases the chances of survival so dramatically, it makes sense to put them in as many places as possible," Tondryk said. "But with the budget crunches and no money coming from the state for this, I don't know how (the district) could do it."

Project Heartbeat, partnering with the Nevada chapter of the American Heart Association, is raising money to place the AEDs in public places in Clark County, including schools. The first donation check came from Kathy Deuel, in memory of her son, David.

Deuel was in the stands watching her son play basketball on Feb. 6, 1999, when the 13-year-old fell to the gym floor at the Silver Springs Recreation Center in Henderson. While bystanders applied CPR, it was a 10-minute wait for paramedics to arrive with a defibrillator. By then it was too late, Deuel said.

Healthy and active up until that day, David died from hypertropic cardiomyopathy. Deuel said the coroner later told her David would likely have survived if there had been a defibrillator at the recreation center.

"It's incredibly frustrating to know David could have been saved," said Deuel, who along with Slattery testified in favor of the AED requirement for high schools. "That's why I want people to know these devices are out there. People say children are less likely to die (of sudden cardiac arrest) so we don't need AEDs in all the schools, but I say every child is valuable, and as adults we have a responsibility to protect them whenever we can."

A month shy of his 14th birthday, Nick Giorgione was running laps with his football teammates at a Green Valley middle school playing field when the dizziness started.

He doesn't remember falling to the ground, or his coach telling him to stop fooling around, get up, and knock it off.

Two teachers performed CPR for about five minutes until paramedics arrived with a defibrillator, shocking the lanky teenager back to life. He remembers fading in and out, vaguely aware that people were hovering over him, but he couldn't feel their touch or hear their voices.

It's been more than two years since Giorgione awoke in the back of the ambulance and the paramedics told him he had gone into cardiac arrest, but he still remembers the conversation that followed.

"I started to cry, and they asked me why I was crying and I said, 'Because now I won't ever play sports again,' " Giorgione said Friday. "They told me I probably had bigger things to worry about."

Giorgione returned to playing some sports -- he's a member of Coronado High's basketball team -- although he does so with an implanted defibrillator that monitors and regulates his heart rhythm. He doesn't dwell on what happened two years ago although it has made him an advocate of sorts.

He has been a guest speaker at conferences of the National Center for Early Defibrillation, based at the University of Pittsburgh, which pushes for the placement of the devices in public places such as schools, shopping malls and sporting event arenas. Giorgione and his parents are also working with Project Heartbeat in Southern Nevada.

AEDs can play a crucial role in the "chain of survival" but do not replace the other links, such as calling 911, administering CPR or transporting a person to the hospital, medical experts say.

Giorgione's mother, Nancy Giorgione, said her family knows firsthand how important it is to preserve that chain. If someone hadn't called 911 immediately the day Nick Giorgione's heart stopped, the paramedics may not have arrived in time. And the teachers who performed CPR kept oxygen going to her son's vital organs, Giorgione said.

"We were very blessed that everything came together the way it did," Nancy Giorgione said.

For more information about AEDs or Project Heartbeat, call Lucy Stewart at (702) 889-2879.