Life-Saving Medical Device That Should Be Required at all Schools

In January, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field during his football game. It is said that sudden cardiac arrest happens to more than 7,000 kids under the age of 18 and 1 in every 300 youth has an undetected heart condition that puts them at risk but for the schools that have AEDs, the survival rate for them is much higher if they go under cardiac arrest.

There is a new bill that recently got passed that will provide schools with the funds to purchase and maintain AEDs, strengthen CPR training and develop cardiac emergency response plans. In response to this Hamlin said, “The Access to AEDs Act will help ensure that schools are just as prepared and trained to respond in the time of crisis as those on the sidelines of an NFL game.” With all of these new things coming out about AEDs being accessible at schools, Matthew Mangine Sr. shared his story on why we need not only just AEDs at schools but the training that goes along with it as well.

Matthew Mangine’s 16 year old son, Matthew Jr. collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest on the soccer field during his practice in 2020. Matthew’s dad stated, “There were five AEDs on campus, yet no one retrieved an AED to apply to Matthew due to a lack of proper training.” Due to the lack of training from the coach and athletic trainer not knowing what action to take or how to use an AED by the time the ambulance arrived it was already too late.

I think that it is important to have AEDs in every school because the rate of high school students going under cardiac arrest is very high but we also need to provide the right type of training for coaches and athletic trainers so they know what measures to take just in case this happens so they could help them and potentially save a players life.