Eighteen Middle Schools Receive a Life-Saving Donation
Hearts of students, faculty and parents in the community can rest a little easier knowing that the campuses of 18 Birmingham-area middle schools are equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
The Monday Morning Quarterback Club raised $20,000, which equipped 15 schools with the devices, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Sports Medicine donated an additional three AEDs to insure that every middle school received a defibrillator. Thanks to the efforts of these two organizations, The Crippled Children’s Foundation and the Lord Wedgwood Charity, middle school students are much safer. Representatives of these organizations presented the Birmingham Board of Education with 18 AEDs on Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
“Having a portable AED available on school campuses makes sense because one never knows where, when or whom cardiac arrest will strike,” Floyd Larkin, representative of the Lord Wedgwood Charity, said at the presentation. “By working with these great organizations to make AEDs readily available, we can lower the number of student lives lost to sudden cardiac arrest.”
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) claims more than 250,000 lives per year. While risk for SCA increases with age, many victims are teenagers. An electrical shock from a defibrillator can restore a normal heart rhythm, but this must happen quickly. Each passing minute reduces a victim’s chance for survival by 7 to 10 percent.
The defibrillators placed in the schools are portable and battery operated, and are designed for infrequent rescuers with little to no training. Voice and visual prompts guide the user through the process of using the AED and administering CPR.
The goal of the Lord Wedgwood Charity in Birmingham, Alabama is to raise awareness about the need for public access defibrillation in the community and to place AEDs in area schools and community gathering places. Because of increased awareness and generous contributions, at least five lives have been saved.
