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Task force to push for defibrillators in all Arkansas schools Tuesday, Aug 5, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Members of a legislative task force said Monday they will urge the Legislature to provide defibrillators to every public school in the state. The Legislative Task Force on Athletic Trainers adopted a motion to recommend lawmakers provide funding for defibrillators at all schools and mandate CPR training for all certified school personnel, not limited to athletic programs and athletic trainers. The task force adopted the motion after witnessing a demonstration of an automatic external defibrillator, or AED, and hearing testimony about several deaths that might have been prevented if defibrillators had been available at Arkansas schools. State Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, filed a bill last year to require public schools to have defibrillators available if funding became available. The House and Senate passed the measure and Gov. Mike Beebe signed it into law, but no funding source was found. Prater said Monday the benefits of having defibrillators on hand would justify the cost. "If I save one life, it is worth $1 million or $5 million or whatever," she said. "I don't want to have to say, 'What if I had CPR? What if I had an AED?'" Automatic defibrillators typically cost about $1,500, Prater said. At that price, the state could purchase one defibrillator for each of the state's 1,217 schools for $1.7 million or one defibrillator for each of the state's 6,000 school buildings for $9 million, though Prater said in an interview the state likely could obtain a reduced price when buying a large number of devices at one time. Task force members said they did not know whether the state would be able to fund defibrillators in every school building, but they wanted to provide a range of options. CPR training could be mandated as part of the 60 hours of professional development educators must receive each year, Prater said. B.J. Maack, president-elect of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association, told the task force coaches in Arkansas are required to receive CPR training but are not required to renew their certification in CPR. The association supports requiring coaches to renew their certification, he said. Some school districts have acted on their own to obtain defibrillators. As of February, at least 436 defibrillators were available to Arkansas students, Prater said after Monday's hearing. AHA officials testified about several people who have died after collapsing at Arkansas schools, including Destiny Hicks, a Gravette second-grader who collapsed in gym class in December 2005; Jamal Cooper, a North Little Rock high school student who collapsed in gym class in 2005; and Antony Hobbs, a Little Rock high school student who collapsed during a basketball game in January. Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould, said funding for lifesaving equipment surely could be found in a state where schools have "bloated athletic budgets" and "can afford three or four assistant coaches." As a demonstration, Diana Boulton, a member of the AHA's emergency cardiovascular care committee, applied a defibrillator, in combination with chest compressions, to a dummy. The defibrillator flashed instructions on a screen along with audible prompts such as "push harder." An automatic defibrillator reads a person's heart rhythm and will not administer a shock if doing so would not benefit the person, making it almost "foolproof," Boulton said. "That thing's smarter than a lot of my friends," Gaskill joked. |
