The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida - Other School Department Based Activities
Celebrating 10 Years Of Wellness
Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) Program
The School District of Palm Beach County
Automatic External Defibrillator Program
Over the past 10 years the District has distributed and maintained automatic external defibrillators (AED’s) in each school site and most of our facilities. During that time rescuers used the AED’s to save 6 adults and 3 student’s lives. Some of the adults were District employees however several were members of the general public that were on campus for a variety of reasons.
History
In 2004 the School Board approved the funding for the purchase an AED for each school site. In conjunction with this funding, the school board developed an AED policy that governed the use, maintenance and training requirements for AED use here in the District.
Shortly thereafter the Health Services Specialist in collaboration with Risk Management reviewed the board’s policy and initiated a program that would assist schools to become compliant with the policy. Compliance involved working with schools to designate AED site coordinators and develop and implement training for the AED site coordinators and emergency response teams. This was completed in school years 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Annually, Risk Management reevaluates the status of the current program to reflect changes in Florida’s laws and industry standards. As a result, they determined that the number AED’s at each location was inadequate and did not meet the American Heart Association’s three minute recommendation. This recommendation states that a responder has three minutes to retrieve the AED and begin cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to afford successful results.
Safety Technicians from Risk Management and Facility Coordinators spent the next year evaluating each of the Districts’ 185 campuses and determined the need for hundreds of additional AED’s. Based on the evaluations conducted during the previous year it was determined in 2006 that the District would need 600 additional AED’s to meet current standards. The school board approved the additional funding and the District purchased 600 Cardiac Science AED’s.
The increase of AED’s raised concerns in Risk Management to ensure that they were properly maintained. An online program, AED Tracking Program (Database), developed by the District’s IT Department provides a system for tracking AED locations at each school as well as the status of its equipment. This has become an invaluable resource as both AED manufacturers have had several software updates during the past few years. The AED Tracking Program made it easy for District and manufactures representatives to ensure that all AED’s were maintained in a state of readiness.
Impact
As stated earlier, District AED’s have saved 8 lives. The person’s saved range in age from 15 – 72.
On April 15, 2009, a District AED helped save Claire Dunlap’s life. At that time, Claire was a 15 year old sophomore varsity softball player for the American Heritage-Delray Stallions. The Stallions had just finished 5 – 4 win against West Boca High and were huddled together after the win. Claire collapsed in the huddle and appeared to be having a seizure. Sarah Donner the trainer for West Boca High at the time, came to Claire’s aide, assessed the situation and began to do CPR. Two paramedics were watching another game on a nearby field and came over to assist. One determined that she was in sudden cardiac arrest and that the CPR wasn’t working. He told the trainer to get an AED and she retrieved one from a nearby golf cart. The paramedics put the pads on Claire and it delivered three shocks. The third shock put Claire’s heart back into rhythm.
Claire spent some time in the hospital undergoing a variety of tests and surgery. She emerged eleven days later with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in her chest. An ICD is a small battery operated device that is “…implanted in patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. The device is programmed to detect cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by delivering a brief electrical impulse to the heart.”1 Claire said she returned to high school and played softball her junior and senior years with no further incidents. However, since entering the University of Florida (UF) in 2011 the ICD has gone off 3 times, once in 2011, and again in 2012 and 2013.
This fall (2014) Claire is entering her senior year at UF and is currently pursuing a degree in advertising. She is active in a lot of campus activities and plays inter-mural volleyball. During her college career Claire has spoken to a variety organizations both on and off campus as an advocate for CPR and AED training. She is currently president of a philanthropic organization called UF Gator Savers. Each year UF Gator Savers sponsors an on campus event that teaches students CPR, gives them an opportunity to donate blood to the Life South Community Blood Centers and join the bone marrow registry. 690 students were CPR certified during last year’s event.
Claire says after her graduation, she’d like to be a manufacturer’s representative for an AED company like Physio Control (formerly Medtronic). Claire noted that she’d really like to work with children that are recovering from sudden cardiac events.
2016 Update
The AEDs used throughout the District have a life expectancy of 8 - 10 years. As a result, in the past few years Safety Technicians and AED Coordinators started noticing that the Charge Paks for the Medtronic AEDs were only lasting 5 - 6 months vs. the 18 months designated by the expiration date. Our first suspicion was that this was a manufacturer’s defect. However, research has indicated that the reason for the premature expiration of the Charge-Paks is the aging components in the AEDs.
Since this is lifesaving technology, the Risk & Benefits Management Department is recommending that the aging AEDs be replaced over the next five years. The FY17 department budget includes $120,000 to start replacing the failing Medtronic AEDs.