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Keep lifesaving device on hand: Help Missoula County schools put defibrillator in each and every school
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Missoula County Public Schools include some 8,500 students, in addition to 1,200 staff. Its 21 schools and buildings throughout Missoula are community resources that host countless public events throughout the year. If one of these children or adults experiences sudden cardiac arrest, the presence of an AED can make the difference between life and death. AEDs, when used within a few minutes of cardiac arrest, can increase the odds of survival by up to 90 percent. Given that cardiac arrest affects blood flow to the brain, their use also increases the odds of a more positive neurological outcome for survivors.
That’s worth so much more than $30,000.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are roughly 80,000 adults residing in Missoula County. If even half this number gave even one dollar to MCPS, the district would have more than enough money to purchase more than enough AEDs and provide for their maintenance.
Heck, if even 3,000 people gave $10 each, MCPS could announce that the goal of its years-long campaign had been met.
Let’s do it, Missoula. Let’s save a life.
MISSOULIAN EDITORIAL BOARD: Publisher Jim McGowan, Editor Sherry Devlin, Opinion Editor Tyler Christensen
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To make a tax-deductible donation to Missoula County Public Schools for the purchase of automated external defibrillators, send a check marked "AED donation" to the MCPS Business Building at 915 South Ave. W. The Missoulian is sponsoring a campaign to buy AEDs for every school in Missoula County.
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Missoula County Public Schools seeks funds to buy defibrillators
There are no shocking statistics when it comes to cardiac episodes in western Montana’s schools, but the reality is that such episodes can happen to anyone at any time.
That’s what everyone found out in January when a Columbia Falls High School freshman, running in gym class, collapsed of cardiac failure.
Cole Brown’s heart was shocked back to beating by an automated external defibrillator. The incident underscored for school districts everywhere the importance of owning AEDs, which can be the difference between life and death for anybody suffering a heart attack or other cardiac emergency.
"It’d be nice to get every school around here filled with them," said Steve Delaney, whose wife died of a heart attack in Seeley Lake two years ago. "If there had been a device there, she might be with us today."
Delaney turned his grief into action, and subsequently donated the cost of an AED to be put into Lewis and Clark Elementary because "it’s pretty neat to think that a little device and some people who know how to use it can save a life," he said.
Yet there is the need for more within the Missoula County Public Schools district, so MCPS and the affiliated Missoula Education Foundation are asking Missoulians to fund the purchase of at least 19 more devices, including some for schools that have none.
By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian
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