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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday December 14, 2007 - 5 Firm pledges to install defibrillators in high schools By Tim Whitnell SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER All high schools in Halton should have a potentially life-saving device installed in them by the end of the current school year. The Mikey Network is donating 24 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to Halton's public and Catholic secondary schools. An announcement of the donation is being made Friday at Central H.S. Hugh Heron, president of Heathwood Homes, will be present. His company established the Mikey Network in memory of Mike Salem, a Heathwood Homes partner who died of a heart ailment on a Muskoka golf course in 2002. The donation, valued at $72,000, is part of a new Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) program in Ontario. In 2006, two Halton high school students died suddenly from cardiac causes. Nicholas Baff, 15, collapsed in a classroom at Burlington Central while an Oakville teen, Alex Corrance, 17, died after collapsing while playing in a rep hockey tournament. "There is a chance of a better outcome if a defibrillator is available rapidly," said Blake Hurst, public safety education coordinator with Halton Region's Emergency Medical Services (EMS). "No one can say definitively that a person would be alive today if they had access to a defibrillator. Our current survival rate for cardiac arrest across most of southern Ontario is less than five per cent for cases outside of the hospital," he noted. A defibrillator delivers a charge of 150200 joules to a person whose heart is out of its normal rhythm, a condition known as ventricular fibrillation. The electrical jolt delivered by an AED stops the out-ofrhythm heart with the body, hopefully, restarting the heart to its correct rhythm. Hurst said the chances of survival for someone in ventricular fibrillation decreases by 10 per cent per minute. A defibrillator is the last resort of cardiovascular disease prevention, said Hurst. He said more should be done to prevent the need for using one by raising awareness of heart-health issues, like exercise and eating properly, in schools and the community. "Acting on unexplained fainting spells, I think, will save more lives in the long run but the defibrillator is the gateway into the schools," he said. Statistics show that about one in 600 teens has an undiagnosed heart problem which translates into two students in a typical high school, said Hurst. He said that by Christmas Iroquois Ridge and St. Thomas Aquinas high schools in Oakville and Central and Notre Dame in Burlington should have their own AEDs, joining Christ the King in Georgetown and Oakville Trafalgar, which received one each last year. Dietrichs Celebrate the Holidays with SE PLEAR IN RDE NCE O ADVA $289 $ 99 $ 99 $499 42 $329 $ 99 $799 COMING DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR IN 2008 Healthy Aging Health information for you and your family Register now to receive complimentary Forever Young Healthy Aging publications, providing information exclusively on health issues that affect you and your family. Please indicate which topics are of interest to you: Heart & Stroke/Cardiovascular - February Mental Health/Depression - May Arthritis Pain Management - September Diabetes - November To receive your edition(s), complete the form below and return by fax 905-337-5571 or mail to the following address by December 31/2007: Forever Young Healthy Aging 467 Speers Rd., Oakville ON L6K 3S4 Register online for the Healthy Aging Forum at www.foreveryoungnews Please provide the following information: Name:_____________________________________________________________ Mailing Address:_____________________________________________________ Postal code:__________________________________Age:____________________ Is this information for ___you or___ someone else? 3 $ 99 6 $ 289 $ 29 4 $ 99 4 $699 $799 MEAT WAREHOUSE Healthy Aging Mental Health & Depression ealthy Aging Diabetes Healthy Aging Cardiovascular Healthy Aging Arthritis & Management PROUDLY SERVING OAKVILLE SINCE 1986 3r 3rd Line 905-847-5295 1260 SPEERS X Unit 13 4t 4th Line Pain N For advertising information call 905-815-0017, ext 421 Dorval Care 1260 Speers Rd. Unit 13, Oakville QEW