According to the American Heart Association or AHA, each company or community should acquire an automated external defibrillator (AED) and have it ready and accessible anytime. This recommendation is also addressed to schools and other educational institutions; whether private or public, profit-oriented or not. However, many concerned individuals and entities have questioned the requirement of an AED to a school. Most of them believe that schools are not critical areas for cases of sudden cardiac arrest and other life-threatening heart diseases.
With regards to the said concern, here are the following important facts that support the idea of requiring each school to provide an AED:
- Children are not immune to heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), and other deadly heart diseases. Studies have shown that although most death cases are on adults, there has been a significant rise on the number of young people each year victimized by such medical condition.
- Students are not the only people inside and around the school. Keep in mind that the teachers and other members of the school faculty and utilities are adults, too. They are also prone to a certain heart disease and that’s why they need a means of protection provided by AED.
- Schools sometimes hold events that form a crowd of people. Thus, there is a chance that visitors – who are either adults or young ones – could get exhausted and experience seizure due to the effects of the crowded area or by the activities in the particular event.
- The use of AED along with CPR is not only applicable to sudden cardiac arrest or any similar medical condition. Remember that the purpose of an AED is to recover the normal heart rhythm of the heart. Severe electric shock, suffocation, drug overdose, drowning, and even physical injuries could result to altering the heart’s operation and thus, irregular heart rhythm occurs and it could only be corrected with the application of AED and CPR.
- Learning to use an AED can be included in the school curriculum as additional course. It could also be used to train the teachers and other members of the school community on the operation and maintenance of the AED. As advised by the AHA, everyone should learn how to do CPR as well as how to use an AED in order to become a ready and responsible responder when such emergency calls. That’s why it would be an advantage when there is an available AED within the school’s premises.
- For schools located in a remote area, acquiring an AED also provides emergency medical service for the residences and small entities around the community.
There and more make the justification of the importance of having an AED in a school. If you want to know how to put up an effective AED Program Management and AED Medical Oversight, simply visit citywidecpr.com. Citywide CPR is a prominent training institution for a diverse range of emergency medical services. Just visit their website to get to know more of the AED Program Management and AED Medical Oversight training courses they offer.
