What would have happened to seventh grader Levi Pocza if Redmond Junior High didn’t have an AED (automated external defibrillator) and an athletic coach who was trained to use it?
This is the first in a two-part series, following up on what happened to Levi Pocza and the history of getting AEDs into the Lake Washington School District (LWSD).
In the Nov. 15 issue of the Redmond Reporter, we described the successful team effort to save Levi’s life after he collapsed in his school gym on Nov. 6.
No one expected an apparently healthy 13-year-old boy to experience cardiac arrest — defined as the loss of all heart function, with little or no blood pumped to the rest of the body.
Yet literature from PhysioControl — the Redmond-based company which built the AED used during this emergency — states that about 335,000 Americans experience sudden cardiac arrest each year. This includes men, women and children — nearly 1,000 people per day. Only about five percent survive, usually because defibrillators arrive on the scene too late, if at all.
The good news is that sudden cardiac arrest is reversible in most victims, if it is treated within minutes. Such was the case for Levi and the reason why this teen is happily recuperating.
A TRAGIC PRECEDENT
Another boy in the LWSD was not as lucky. In November 2000, Sean Shipler, a 14-year-old student at Inglewood Junior High in Sammamish, experienced sudden cardiac arrest while running on the track. Although he received CPR, it was 10 minutes before paramedics got there and revived him with a defibrillator. Sean is still alive, but he has severe neurological impairment. His family has moved away from this area.
Levi’s miraculous rescue took a coordinated effort between teachers, school administrators and emergency responders — and would not have happened without an AED at Redmond Junior High.
The movement to get AEDs into local schools was driven by a tenacious group of parents and teens who didn’t want another family to endure the agony that beset the Shiplers and so many others.
MANY QUESTIONS
Among key players in the crusade for AEDs were a Sammamish resident named Scott Bulger and his daughter Shannon (Bulger) Hunnex, who was an Eastlake High School student when Sean Shipler’s cardiac arrest occurred.
Bulger gave the Redmond Reporter some background information. His daughter was dating the brother of Sean’s best friend. After the terrible incident occurred at Inglewood, Shannon came home very upset and said, “Are you aware that kids are having cardiac arrests at school?”
Bulger noted, “That year, five children in the Puget Sound area had cardiac arrests and passed away.”
Hunnex added a bit more detail. She said that Sean often tagged along to University of Washington football games when she went with her then-boyfriend and his family. When Sean stopped coming, she asked about him and found out why he was in the hospital.
“This was right around Thanksgiving and we were sitting around, with our big happy family … and it struck me that Sean’s family would be spending their Thanksgiving in a hospital. It bothered me and I called the dad and asked, ‘Can I bring you some food? Is there anything I can do to help?’”
Sean’s father, Chris Shipler, was working on a public awareness campaign. But as a grieving parent, it was hard for Chris to communicate as effectively as someone slightly removed from the situation, Bulger and Hunnex explained.
Hunnex helped to organize a media event and fundraiser at Inglewood, to bolster Chris’ mission. “He said, ‘We’re going to have a rally, to bring Sean home, to help with his medical care,’” said Hunnex.
She set up donation cannisters at a local Safeway store, showing Sean’s picture and a short blurb about what had happened to him. And from trying to raise money for Sean’s medical care, she began to think about the importance of having AEDs in schools.
She and Sean’s brother went from classroom to classroom at Eastlake, telling peers, “We are all at risk of this happening. Please be aware of it and support us.”
Some of the students were not sympathetic. “They thought (Sean) must have been doing drugs or that there was some reason for what happened to him. They raised a lot of weird questions. But he wasn’t on drugs, he was a normal, healthy kid. He had just finished football season, so it wasn’t for lack of conditioning,” said Hunnex.
From a teachers’ perspective, many were very supportive, she added. But others “seemed worried that we were spearheading an attack against the district’s Risk Management. That was never my motivation,” Hunnex stated. “I think of AEDs as being like a fire extinguisher. If you had a child burn to death because there was a fire and you didn’t have an extinguisher, wouldn’t you want to change that?”
Said Bulger, “I met a woman named Alidene Doherty — she was a nurse in critical care, working for UW on a nationwide study about putting defibrillators into the public domain, in restaurants, airports and so on. At the time, they thought putting them into schools was a waste of time.”
Why? First, there was the misconception that kids didn’t need them. And there was a fear that if improperly used, AEDs could do more harm than good.
“Alidene started explaining the issue across the U.S.,” said Bulger. “Then I found the Acompora family in New York, who had lost a 14-year-old son at a lacrosse game. His parents got New York legislators to pass a law in New York schools (equipping them with AEDs). More than a dozen lives were saved there.” (See www.la12.org, regarding The Louis J. Acompora Memorial Foundation.)
Bulger said he asked himself, “What can we do? We’ll raise some money and buy a defibrillator for Inglewood.”
But it didn’t feel right to give this lifesaving equipment to just one school.
He went to the school district and offered, “We’re gonna buy them and deliver them to school with batteries and all the accessories … but you will have to tell parents why you’re not going to use them.”
They were still concerned about liability, but Bulger said he’d seek ways to deliver the equipment, along with training to ensure safe usage.
ROTARIANS AND MARINERS HELP
Bulger connected with Clint Merriman, the special projects manager for the Issaquah Rotary Club, to set up tax-exempt status and handle the money for the AEDs.
“Clint said, ‘Let’s do both Lake Washington School District and Issaquah through Rotary.’ The Rotary Club of Redmond Rousers came in … (and) Arthur Rhodes of the Seattle Mariners and his wife Leah were our neighbors. Leah said she could help to set up an autograph signing.”
Close to 50 auction items — such as baseballs, hats and jackets — were procured. The Rotarians, Mariners and others set up tents in the parking lots at Lowe’s and Home Depot in Issaquah and asked for donations for autographs.
“Medtronic/PhysioControl was there, we had grilled hot dogs, police and fire personnel,” Bulger recalled. “More than 1,000 people came and we raised $26,000. The Acomporas came all the way from New York.”
Redmond Town Center also had offered this grassroots fundraising contingent space for an auction, but the timing was ill-fated. The planned auction coincided with the Saturday following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“We had to postpone it for two weeks. People’s attention had waned from the Mariners to issues of homeland security,” said Bulger. “The auction fell by the wayside but Redmond (Rousers) Rotary stepped in to bid on items. We raised $52,000 total from the auctions.”
Other donations continued to trickle in and one family bought a defibrillator all by themselves, he continued. Professionals donated or heavily discounted their training services.
More than 150 relevant personnel — such as athletic trainers and coaches — learned how to use AEDs.
