AEDs could become part of school’s required cardiac arrest response plan, but NV is already ready

Chris Roberts, EMS Manager at Adair County Health System said recently that two components come to mind for positive outcomes in cardiac arrest patients: quality and early CPR and the utilization of an automatic external defibrillator, also known as an AED.

The Iowa Legislature has recently been discussing requiring schools to write down preparedness plans for cardiac arrest events. As part of that, AEDs would be required to be located no more than three minutes away and training would be needed.

Creston athlete Nate Bentley, 15, required the use of an AED during a track meet last spring at Glenwood when he went into cardiac arrest. One was also used last year on Nodaway Valley Elementary School teacher Stacey Olson.

AEDs are currently located in each Nodaway Valley school building and at its football stadium. Nodaway Valley Activities Director Sara Honnold said school nurse Cheyanne Warrior has been working to double check that all of the AEDs are up to date.

“They’re super easy to use — you can’t mess it up. It’s going to tell you what to do,” Honnold said of the devices.

While she’s been trained in the use of AEDs, Honnold, who is also the middle school principal, stated that even students as young as fifth or sixth grade could likely figure out how to operate an AED, if needed.

“They’re not going to hurt anyone by using it,” Honnold said, because it will tell you whether or not a shock is needed before doing it.

“In EMS, we’ve seen that play out to where bystanders are the first responders even before we’re there,” Roberts said. “They’ve deployed that AED and the patient might be sitting up talking to us when we arrive. So that would be the best-case scenario.”

An AED can also give responding emergency personnel data if a shock has been given.

“We can interrogate it and get whether shocks were delivered, how many,” Roberts said. “If there were cycles that said no shock advised, we can kind of see how long that event had been going on, how effective the chest compressions were, that kind of thing.”

Most of Nodaway Valley’s athletic training responsibilities are handled by a company called Peak Performance, but they have been able to come before to talk to coaches and athletes on preparedness for various common injuries.

Coaches also go through a first aid training regularly that covers the use of AEDs and other topics.

“I know coaches are aware of where the AEDs are. One weak spot we might have is on the back side of the school where we have baseball and softball. If we would have a need, it may be smart to get one in that place,” Honnold said. “I think it’s something that’s very, very helpful.”