With the hope of preventing tragedy, Canyons District has installed Automated External Defibrillators in all its elementary, middle and high schools.
Canyons Coordinator of Risk Management Kevin Ray says CSD is “at the head of the pack as far as school districts are concerned” regarding the installation of the devices at every school. The devices arrived in August and Risk Management staff members were tasked with placing them at schools.
Every elementary school will have one, middle schools will have two, and high schools will have as many as four each. “We are not doing this because we have had a problem,” said Ray. “We are doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Having access to AEDs and personnel trained to administer this kind of shock to the heart have been credited with saving lives of young people who might otherwise have died on a football field, a basketball court, or on a school playground. It’s estimated that more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital. A victim’s chances of survival are reduced by 7 to 10 percent with every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation. Few attempts at resuscitation succeed after 10 minutes.
The sooner the defibrillation shock the better because each minute the brain goes without oxygen diminishes the likelihood the victim will return to a “normal life” even if resuscitation does occur within 10 minutes.
