The beat goes on with Heart Safe

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Heart Safe is making local schools safer when it comes to sudden cardiac arrest cases — one automated external defibrillator at a time.

The new nonprofit's goal is to buy and place three AEDs in high schools in the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts, two in the middle schools and one at each elementary.

"I truly believe that we can achieve that goal (14) in the next six months to a year," said Ryan Asher, a captain and paramedic with Kootenai County Fire and Rescue. "School budgets are tight, so if we can facilitate putting these devices in schools, it benefits the community as a whole."

AEDs are portable electronic devices designed to restore a regular heart rhythm during cardiac arrest. The devices the nonprofit buys cost $1,400 each and are the same brand used by area emergency agencies.

Heart Safe is a collaboration between Asher, Coeur d'Alene Fire's Blaine Porter and Northern Lakes Fire District's Jarrod Pitts.

“We’ve gone to local businesses and raised $21,000 for 15 units in a few months,” Asher said. “We’re one big family working together for the same cause.”

Asher said more are being donated to high schools than other schools since those schools have more sports and activities, and therefore more visitors on campus.

The most recent example of an AED being put to use by local school staff involved Timberlake football coach Roy Albertson, who is recovering after a heart attack on Sept. 26 before practice.

"That wasn't an AED donated by us — it was the school's — but there was a huge benefit to having it there," Asher said.

Asher first became involved in securing AEDs for schools nearly 10 years ago when he responded to a call of a River City Middle School student who had an episode and died.

"That piqued my interest, and I know a lot of (medical equipment) vendors," he said. "At that time, AEDs were just not something on the forefront in school districts. AEDs were lacking."

After focusing on AEDs for more Post Falls schools, Asher said he then began to wonder if neighboring districts had them, especially since his daughter attends Betty Kiefer Elementary in Rathdrum. The need for AEDs also existed for the other districts, he said.

"It reached a personal level for me for my own kid's safety," he said.

With Post Falls being taken care of for AEDs for the time being, the focus has been donations to Coeur d'Alene this week and Lakeland in the near future.

Nine units were donated to Coeur d'Alene on Monday and four are headed to Lakeland at a later date.

"This is a tremendous gift from Heart Safe," said Nichole Piekarski, lead nurse for Coeur d’Alene Public Schools. "This gets us much closer to our goal of having at least one automated defibrillator in each of our 17 schools, increasing access to health care."

The new AEDs will be placed at Canfield and Woodland middle schools, and in Borah, Atlas, Fernan, Hayden Meadows, Ramsey, Bryan and Dalton elementary schools. The school district already has AEDs at Lake City, Coeur d’Alene and Venture high schools and at Lakes Magnet Middle School.

"These life-saving devices are there to quickly help our students, teachers and staff, as well as the parents and guardians of our students and all visitors to our schools," Piekarski said.

The AEDs are available for use during school activities, including athletic events, as well as when community groups — such as city recreation programs — are using school buildings after hours, she said.

Heart Safe also trains school staffs on how to use AEDs.

The nonprofit may take on projects outside Kootenai County in the future, possibly helping other districts in North Idaho secure AEDs and working on legislation requiring all schools to have at least one.

"There's no business plan, so if we see a need, we want to make sure it's taken care of," Asher said. "That's how firefighters work."