Football Player's Death Highlights
Importance Of AED Training

A recent Associated Press story highlights the critical importance of AED training in saving the lives of youth athletes who suffer Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).

So Near, Yet So Far According to the September 12, 2004 story in the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, when rising football star Ryan Boslet suffered sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) during a workout at his school gym on February 20, 2003, the AED the school had only recently purchased wasn't used - even though it was just the length of a basketball court away in the athletic director's office - because a staff member couldn't find the adhesive electrode pads, which were tucked under a flap inside the AED. Thinking the device was inoperable, coaches called 911, and administered to the 6-foot-4, 270 pound defensive tackle, but the 17-year old died later that day.

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Larger Problem

Boslet's death, said the AP article, points to a larger problem: "Ordinary people, even with training, often can't use the increasingly popular defibrillators under the pressure of an emergency."

Experts say even trained operators can falter if they don't regularly train on AEDs. Merely having the devices is not enough. Interviewed for the AP article, Mary Fran Hazinski of the American Heart Association, noted that, while the "device is very simple, ... the situation is not very common. When you find yourself in the midst of an emergency situation, it's easy to get flustered."

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People need to be familiar enough with the AED through training - and retraining - to use them quickly enough to provide an SCA victim the best chance of survival, Hazinski said. A defibrillator certification program involves a four-hour course and needs to be renewed every two years. Refresher training should occur every 60 to 90 days.

Conflicting Studies

Recent studies seem to draw opposite conclusions:

• An article in the July 2004 issue of the journal Prehospital Emergency Care reported that volunteers had trouble opening the AED and failed to properly place the pads that deliver the shock that can restore heart rhythm;

• A study published in the December 2003 issue of the Journal of Dental Education found that AEDs were used only slightly more than a third of the time by rescuers in places where the devices were nearby;

• The same study found that four out of five non-health workers couldn't use AEDs properly when training on mannequins;

• Yet an article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that, with the help of visual and verbal prompts from an AED, six people with no prior AED training were able to use the devices to revive SCA victims at Chicago's airports - including the busy O'Hare International Airport.

Be Prepared

The key, says Hazinski, is for a school to always have a plan to handle medical emergencies - including the use of an AED - and all staff and students should receive regular training.

"If they practice, everyone is able to respond and that will give the victim the best outcome," she told the AP. "It has to be a coordinated and practiced response plan - it does nobody any good if someone donates an [AED] to a school and it's locked in a cabinet."

Since Ryan's death, his high school has bought three more AEDs and trained more than a third of the school's 140 staff members. Principal Tim Duncan says the school is probably now more prepared than any in the country.

Father Left To Wonder

Although Ryan's father, Chris, told the Telegraph he harbored no ill feelings toward the school, he still wonders if Ryan could have been saved had the AED been used.

"In my opinion, it would have removed the one element of doubt we still live with," he said. "We just don't know if a defibrillator used [earlier] would have saved him, and I guess we'll never know that."

Article Updated: July 6, 2006
Published March 4, 2004

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