Maryland Schools to Install Defibrillators

Schools in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties are adding heart defibrillators to their arsenal of equipment to keep students and staff safe.

Some school offices and all high schools in Anne Arundel County have recently obtained the devices, which detect irregular heart rhythms of cardiac arrest and deliver an electric shock to restore the correct pattern. And the Baltimore County school board approved last week spending $675,000 to buy and maintain units for all schools and offices and to train staff to use them.

Parents and emergency professionals have lobbied to have automated external defibrillators, which can range from $1,400 to $1,650, in places where large groups gather because the timing of a response is critical.

"When the fire department receives a call for cardiac arrest, valuable time is already lost," said Joseph L. Brown, who directs emergency medical services for Baltimore County's Fire Department. "After the first two minutes, the chances of bringing someone back from cardiac arrest drop off dramatically."

According to the American Heart Association, about 220,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. Some may have some form of disease, but others, including up to 7,000 children a year, die from undiagnosed heart defects or from being struck in the chest.

A number of states, such as New York and New Jersey, have passed laws requiring defibrillators in schools. School districts in Virginia and elsewhere have raised money to purchase the units, sometimes after students or staff members died.

The Baltimore City school system has not bought any defibrillators, but officials hope to do so, and they are negotiating with the city health department to arrange for training in their use, said Louise Fink, director of interagency support services.

Fink said some schools have received inquiries from people interested in donating the devices. Alexandra Hughes, assistant to schools chief Bonnie S. Copeland, said she's seen defibrillators in schools, but she could not say how many.

Montgomery, Howard and Harford counties are considering purchasing defibrillators for schools. A Carroll County school committee looked into whether the system should purchase the devices, but recommended against it. The committee determined that the money needed to comply with state requirements, such as annual training for staff members and having the devices available at school athletic events, might be better spent on other safety equipment, said Steve Guthrie, assistant superintendent of administration for Carroll schools.

Anne Arundel school officials chose to start with high schools, to protect athletes, but hope to add the units in more schools as funding permits. The county also has the devices in some police cars and stations.

Within the past decade, two Anne Arundel County staff members died of cardiac arrest, said the school system's safety specialist Diane Ferguson. One was a facility engineer in his 50s who was shoveling snow in a blizzard; the other was a fifth-grade teacher.

"Basically she died in front of her students," said Ferguson, who has worked for three years to get units in schools.

Baltimore County schools expects to purchase the devices this winter and begin training staff members to use them, beginning with high schools, said spokeswoman Kara Calder.

"Those tend to be the buildings that are in use quite a bit by the community," she said.

High schools will receive four - three within the school building and one for the athletic department, she said. Middle and elementary schools will each have one as well, possibly by the beginning of spring 2007, Calder said.

At each school, a physician will teach 10 staff members to perform CPR and use the defibrillator, she said.

The Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks plans to place donated defibrillators at its five regional parks and at its soccer arena in North Point, said department director Robert J. Barrett. He said that the step is part of a safety program launched after the death last summer of a 4-year-old boy whose heart stopped after he was struck in the chest with a baseball at an adult amateur league game in Lutherville.

Baltimore County also purchased 22 defibrillators for $42,000 for its senior centers in the last budget cycle, and there are more than a dozen at other county-owned facilities, said Brown, of the county's Fire Department. The county encourages businesses to buy their own units through a discount program called Project Heartbeat, which Brown, of the county Fire Department, directs.

"The goal is to save people's lives, of all ages," he said.

And, he said, they already have. Last month, a Fire Department captain stepped out of a fire truck and collapsed. A nearby medic unit was able to use a defibrillator to revive him. Earlier in the fall, a Hereford High School student suffered cardiac arrest during class. School staff administered CPR until a medic arrived with a defibrillator.

"It was a short enough period of time that she had a full recovery," Brown said.

Ferguson, from the Anne Arundel County schools, said she believes in the future it won't be unusual to have defibrillators in schools. "I think one of these days they're going to be like fire extinguishers," she said.

liz.kay@baltsun.com

Sun reporter Sara Neufeld contributed to this article.

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