By Jim Quirk
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (April 21) – Parents and relatives of children who died of cardiac arrest want legislation passed that requires all schools to have emergency equipment to revive heart-attack victims.
That equipment is known as Automated External Defibrillators [AEDs].
A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, however, said the proposed requirement is an expense state school districts cannot afford.
Association spokeswoman Dr. Marcela Myers told the House Education Committee Wednesday the association recognizes “the potential importance of having an … AED available to respond to emergency situations.”
However, she said she “would be remiss if I did not address the budgetary difficulties school districts are forced to work with particularly in these difficult economic conditions.”
House Bill 1083, sponsored by Rep. John Siptroth, D-Monroe, requires each public school to have an AED. It also requires “each teacher, administrator, school nurse, assistant school nurse, athletic coach or sponsor, marching band director, athletic trainer, cheerleading coach” to be certified to use an AED.
Myers, the Lower Dauphin School District director, said AEDs cost between $1,390 and $3,425. School districts would also regularly incur other costs for the devices, such as for new batteries and electrode pads, she said.
Myers said the legislation also proposes to have school employees certified only by the American Red Cross, which Myers learned costs $120 person. Myers said she found another organization that provides AED training that costs only $55 per person.
Dr. Victoria Vetter, a pediatric cardiologist from Philadelphia, said she supports the bill. The availability of AEDs in schools “could mean the difference between life and death” for some children, she said.
Vetter said Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation [CPR] is helpful for sudden cardiac arrest, but only an AED could restore a normal heart rhythm.
She said the best chance for someone to survive cardiac arrest is when defibrillation occurs in three to five minutes, which is why an AED should be onsite at all schools.
Vetter said thousands of children across the country die every year from cardiac arrest.
Newton resident Lorraine Sikora said her 15-year-old nephew, Louis Savino, suffered cardiac arrest during a soccer game in 2000 and died. She said Savino had no chance of survival because the school did not have an AED on site.
Shawnee on Delaware residents John and Rachel Moyer told the committee their 15-year-old son, Gregory, died from cardiac arrest while playing in a varsity basketball game in 2000.
John Moyer said his son “suffered sudden cardiac arrest during halftime of the basketball game and passed away.” If the school had an AED, Moyer said his son might not have died.
John Moyer said there’s “absolutely nothing” in House Bill 1083 that could help him or other parents and relatives of children who died from sudden cardiac arrest. “We are here trying to protect the children of people out there in the commonwealth that don’t even know this problem exists,” he said.
Moyer said legislation approved by lawmakers in 2001 provided two AEDs to every school district and one for every vocational technical school and intermediate unit.
“Some districts have two schools, they’re small schools, and two AEDs would have done it,” he said. “But look at Philadelphia with 70-plus high schools before you even get into the junior highs, elementary schools, etc.”
Moyer said the AEDs that were provided “were not meant to be all that was required.”
“Those were intended to prime the pump, to provide sort of a wake up call to districts that … this is something we in the state Legislature believe is important and we’re providing two of them for you to get the ball rolling,” he said.
Some districts have chosen to place AEDs in all of their “buildings rather than play Russian roulette with, ‘Where is the sudden cardiac arrest going to occur?’” Moyer said.
The bill also calls for establishing a pilot program to screen sixth grade children for potential heart problems.
Myers said the “way House Bill 1803 is written implies that it will be the school districts’ responsibility to implement the cardiovascular screening if they are selected for the pilot program.”
She said districts are already required to give students’ vision and hearing screening tests, and take their height and weight measurements.
“Adding a cardiovascular screening component will only make this task all the more difficult,” Myers said.
Rhonda Foster, a registered nurse from Harrisburg, said her 15-year-old daughter Janna died in her sleep in 2002. It was later learned Janna had a genetic heart condition, she said.
If her daughter had been tested earlier with an electrocardiogram, she might not have died, Foster said.
The bill, which is receiving bipartisan support, is likely to see some changes that address the association’s money concerns.
Committee Chairman James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, told Myers it is “a work in progress,” and that the House plans to “look at ways the improve the legislation.”
Why not have a walk for defibrillators for the public schools?
Many have donated ones to Living Word Academy, the Worship Center, Lancaster Mennonite has 3—one in each building- athletic department at Manheim twp has one. Franklin and Marshall have them in their athletic departments.
They are not that expensive to save lives of the children.