Nick Stevens: AEDs need to be the norm

If you haven't read the story about Cardinal Gibbons senior lacrosse player Alex Beuris, you need to.

Alex was hit in the chest with a lacrosse ball from about 10-feet out, causing his heart to stop - a condition called Commotio Cordis. Cardinal Gibbons coach Mike Curatolo, with the help of two player's grandfather, purchased an AED in 2001. That purchase saved Alex's life.

If it can happen at Gibbons, it can happen at any school.

Sure, not every school has lacrosse, but deaths caused by Commotio Cordis have been recorded in baseball, softball, and hockey as well. Not to mention that coaches, spectators, and officials could be the victims of some sort of cardiac emergency - and in the youth, these emergencies often come without warning.

So, what can be done?

Every school that fields any athletic team needs to have a AED readily available, and they need to have staff trained to use it.

When I published the story about Alex, I got several e-mails saying that their school doesn't have an AED. That has got me thinking: What if this happened somewhere else? We would be publishing a story here that would be more of a tragedy than a story about success. Then I thought, why doesn't every school have an AED?

Roughly, these machines cost $3,000. That is a drop in the bucket for a budget at a school. Maybe the athletic teams should go without getting new uniforms in order to pay it off, or maybe the school makes teams do fundraising to get the money to purchase one. Either way, there is no excuse in a school not having an AED -- not when it can save the life of an athlete.

When we first got word of the incident at Gibbons, I started checking locally to see what the AED policies were. WakeMed donated 41 AEDs to Wake County middle and high schools, and Ravenscroft has 8 AEDs on its campus, including one that travels around with their athletic trainer.

But what about the rural counties in our state? What about some of the private schools? Do they have the AEDs in place?

WRAL.com is going to be checking into that over the next few weeks, and putting together a story about AEDs in North Carolina schools.

One thing we do know, the N.C. High School Athletic Association approved an AED placement project at their Nov. 28 meeting last fall that would put AEDs in 128 high schools in four phases.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you as to whether or not your school has an AED (or multiple AEDs), and what your thoughts are on the issue.