Defibrillators are going to area schools
6-6
By Stacey Creasy
Pilot News
PLYMOUTH � The Marshall County Community Found-ation intends to place Automatic External Defibril-lators in each school in the county and train people there how to operate them.
The reason why is obvious. The AEDs have saved two lives in local schools over the past year.
Knox High School basketball player Jessica Neace was playing in a game at Michigan City when she collapsed. There are two reasons why Neace is alive today � two people at the game that know CPR, and an AED.
Neace had to vital signs when she was hooked up to the AED. After two shocks, her heart began beating again.
A 74-year-old Bremen man was watching his sixth grade granddaughter play basketball at Oregon-Davis when he suffered a massive heart attack. The man fell to the floor and died.
School officials grabbed an AED, hooked the man up to the machine and shocked him once. His heart started beating again. At the hospital, the doctors informed the elderly man that without the AED, he would have died in the gym.
John Large, 58, of Culver is another person whose life was saved by an AED. Large suffered a heart attack in his rural Culver home. The first police officer on the scene, Chad Becker pulled out an AED that was in his squad car and placed the pads on Large. After a pair of shocks, Large�s heartbeat was on a normal rhythm.
�It saved my life,� Large said, referring to the AED.
The Community Foundation wants to see AEDs where there are large groups of people.
�We are first targeting the schools,� said Plymouth Paramedic John Grolich. �We are putting two in Culver and two in Triton. There are two in (LaVille) Lakeville-Lapaz already.�
Argos and Bremen will be the next schools on the list.
Grolich said the Plymouth schools already have four AEDs.
�We have already seen how important it is to have these machines in the schools,� Grolich said. �We want to make sure we have at least one in every school.�
Local paramedics also offer the classes and training on how to use the AEDs.
Once the schools are stocked, Grolich said the Community Foundation will look at where to go next. Future sites include public libraries, public events, factories, etc.
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