Schools to Receive Cardiac Devices

After nearly two dozen cardiac deaths on its campuses last year, Los Angeles Unified School District this week will begin distributing 60 heart defibrillators to middle and high schools, officials said Monday.

The district will train nearly 1,000 staffers to use the devices by summer, said Pete Anderson, director of the district’s office of emergency services.

The defibrillators were purchased after heavy lobbying by the American Heart Assn., which counted last year’s deaths using news clippings and other reports. The association did not say whether those deaths were students or staff members.

The school district does not keep records of deaths related to cardiac arrests and could not confirm the number, district spokeswoman Cricket Bauer said.

According to the heart association, LAUSD is one of the first districts to buy defibrillators. Some school officials in other metropolitan areas said they do not need them because their schools are generally concentrated in smaller areas and closer to paramedics.

“I think what LAUSD is doing is right on time,” said Kathy McInerney, an official with CARE Foundation, which educates the public about cardiac death. “The defibrillators can and will save lives.”

The defibrillators, which cost about $2,800 each, were purchased about six months ago.

Every high school in the district will receive one, and several adult schools and the largest middle schools will get the rest, Anderson said. Eventually, every middle school will have one, although no timetable for the distribution has been set, he said.

School nurses have been trained to use the defibrillators. Over the next few months, they will instruct athletic directors and coaches, administrators and various other school staffers, Anderson said.