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July 2009
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« Good Days and Bad on Mt. Rainier |Main| What am I doing here? Allen does synchronized swimming - in his clothes »
In a perfect world Darla Varrenti would be seeing her son Nick off to college today. Varrenti's son Nick died of a cardiac arrest 3 years ago at the age of 16. I contacted Varrenti to get her thoughts on a new survey which found that over 16 years about 12 students suffered cardiac arrests while at school in the Seattle area. After leaving work, I couldn't stop thinking about this issue, and Varrenti. There is a lot of controversy surrounding AED's in schools, and as a parent I see both sides. AED's are expensive, and the cost to train teachers, staff and students may be something some school districts just can't afford. At the same time, although there have only been a small number of cardiac deaths on school grounds, a death is still a death, and every life is valuable. Varrenti will be presenting her bill later this year. I plan to cover the process to the end. 4 Comments |
Leaving aside the poignant and personal emotions of this, what is the big deal about dropping a 1,000 or 2,000 piece of hardware onto a public school? Anyone who visits, anyone in the neighborhood nearby, any student staffer or parent would think of this as CHEAP insurance. Yeah, maybe it doesn't get used in the first 5 years. That's -awesome-. But it's there if it's needed. The more of these produced, the more insurance all of us have and the cheaper they become.
Re reading I notice one concern is the cost... and that was mentioned on the news segment last night. These things cost 1 to 2 thousand dollars. That's less then a PC for life saving equipment. Then comes the cost of "training"... I understand that these are potentially dangerous, glueing the paddles to each other and pressing the red button would be bad, ditto placing the paddles in the wrong place on the body. But, come on, go and see one of these things in use. They are almost comically straight forward ("remove the white backing from the red paddle marked A"). For any misuse there are going to be 50 or 100 lives saved.
I understand some districts can't afford them, but for most an additional $2,000 budget item this year wouldn't even be a blip on the radar. It would be nice to see Phillips or one of the manufacturers donate these to PTA auctions that will agree to arrange matching cash donations... but PTAs in -this- area (eastside, most of Seattle) can well afford to help with this if schools (foolishly) won't budget the cash. all IMO of course
I think as a nation we all need to think about national disasters. and think about when a disaster happens we can have a secondary place to go for emergencies, Like schools and it would be a great Idea for all schools to have these DeFibrillators on hand and a lot of emergency supplies for that rainy day that we need it.
And should be funded by FEMA.
The (5)Ps Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance could save many lives in the future if we plan ahead.
if anyone in seattle has an issue with the cost of these a.e.d's they should watch their child die from cardiac arrest and know that it would've only taken 2000 dollars to save them. as part of the bill my mom is drafting there will be built-in funding for not only the a.e.d's but training also. i think as a society we are often reactive, and it is time to be proactive when it comes to making everyone in our school systems a little bit safer.