McKee Medical Center donates life-saving equipment to area schools
LOVELAND, Colo. (Sept. 15, 2009) – McKee Emergency Department physician Scott Sundheim hopes the hospital’s gift to Thompson School District goes unused for a long time.
However, in the event that someone’s heart stops beating, the four automated external defibrillators purchased by the hospital’s foundation for area high schools could be a matter of life and death.
Sundheim and the Emergency Department received $9,600 from the McKee Medical Center Foundation to purchase the AEDs for use in Loveland, Thompson Valley, Mountain View and Berthoud and Harold Ferguson high schools. They will be available for use if a student, faculty member or visitor to the school experiences sudden cardiac arrest.
Sundheim explained that a person’s chance of survival from cardiac arrest decreases as he or she waits for emergency responders to arrive and perform defibrillation. Even if cardiopulmonary resuscitation is performed promptly, the chance of survival – especially without serious brain damage – is less without restarting the person’s heart through defibrillation.
An AED on site can restart the heart before permanent damage occurs.
The donation also includes training for school staff to use the AED.
“Hopefully years will pass before the equipment would ever need to be used,” Sundheim said. “Should a sudden cardiac arrest occur, the student or adult could have the heartbeat restored before brain damage occurs, allowing for recovery.”
A student in a Denver-area school suffered cardiac arrest in 2008 and was saved when a fellow student and school resource officer performed CPR and defibrillation using an AED. That school received the AED as a donation from a couple whose son had died from sudden cardiac arrest with an undiagnosed heart condition.
Barb Hartman, health services coordinator for the district, first conceived the idea of working with McKee to obtain the AEDs when she attended a community breakfast with Chief Executive Officer Chris Cornue at the hospital.
“In part of his speech he talked about community involvement and it made me think this was one way McKee could get involved in public health and safety,” she said. Barb envisioned setting up the units so the public – including people attending sporting events, concerts or church activities at the school – could access them in case of an emergency.
“This is something very good for the people in the community,” she said.
Hartman said a fifth AED was made possible by the KickStartMyHeart Foundation program and the Big Thompson Emergency Physicians, P.C., in memory of Todd and Vaunda Seek. Todd was captain with the Thompson Valley EMS and Vaunda was a former employee of the McKee Emergency Department. The pair was killed in a car accident in January 2009.
PRESENTATION: Representatives from the McKee Medical Center Foundation, the McKee Emergency Department, the Thompson School District, the KickStartMyHeart Foundation and parent Howard Lunger will gather for a presentation of the AEDs at Thompson Valley High School, 1669 Eagle Drive, Loveland in Room 111 at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 21.
Please RSVP to Sara Quale, public relations specialist at McKee Medical Center, (970) 635-4031, if you are interested in attending.
