SHEPHERD SCHOOL TO RECEIVE DEFIBRILLATOR

The Shepherd School of Music will soon become the third location on the Rice campus to have installed a potentially life-saving tool: an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Rice Emergency Medical Services (REMS) Director Steve Reiter said, "We have the unit in our possession. It's just a matter of putting it in (at the Shepherd School)."

The Shepherd School, a venue that draws thousands each year to attend performances, will receive an AED exactly like the defibrillators already located at Autry Court and the Facilities and Engineering Building. Reiter said the placement of AEDs at Rice is a direct result of a safety survey conducted by Medtronic, the company that installs the defibrillators. The company looked at the entire campus to identify high-attendance areas and their ease of accessibility.

REMS is currently pursuing the possibility of also installing defibrillators at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management Building and at Rice Stadium. Reiter said they are in the process of finding the optimum location in both areas.

Each public access defibrillator (PAD), the unit that actually contains the AED, is wired to dispatch REMS when opened. The person at the site can turn on the machine and receive instructions on a digital display screen with an audio recording. An emergency medical technician (EMT) will be en route to the site to provide more advanced care and take the victim to the hospital.

Each Rice department or school in which a PAD site is located pays for its own defibrillator, Reiter said, but REMS maintains the PADs with monthly checkups.

According to a report by REMS, with each passing minute of cardiac arrest, a person's chance of survival decreases by 10 percent. Defibrillators actually deliver an electric shock to a pulse-less person's heart, resetting the electronic pulses. When followed by early advanced care from an EMT, defibrillation can be a life-saver. Recommendations from groups such as the American Heart Association are making defibrillation accessible to the general public.

"Education in the community has taught us earlier access to defibrillators is the most important component to saving [people in cardiac arrest]," Reiter said.