October 25, 2005
Purdue equips bus fleet with heart-starting defibrillators
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University has equipped its buses and vans used for athletics, field trips, student activities and conferences with lifesaving automatic external defibrillators.
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The devices are the same as those used by emergency medical technicians on ambulances at Purdue.
"Purdue Fire Department personnel showed us how easy the defibrillators are to use," said Wayne Kjonaas, vice president for physical facilities. "They're not expensive, and we realized that we can have them available in more places where the need could arise."
Step-by-step voice instructions are provided with the defibrillators, and they adjust to body masses of people from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. Kjonaas said the machines will not allow the operator to make incorrect decisions. Even so, 49 physical facilities employees, including the entire staff of the transportation area, now have taken a four-hour training course from the fire department.
The course makes defibrillator use familiar, practices CPR and teaches how those procedures fit into the "chain of survival." That term from the American Heart Association includes immediate first aid plus advanced life support by emergency medical service and hospital personnel. The American Medical Association estimates that fully utilizing the chain could save 50,000 lives a year in the United States.
Physical facilities has installed 11 of the machines on vehicles and another six in campus buildings. The planned next step is to train Purdue police officers how to use the defibrillators and install them in squad cars.
"Six minutes is kind of the magic number," Kjonaas said. "If you can revive a heartbeat within six minutes, the person has an excellent chance of surviving."
Writer: Jim Schenke, (765) 494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu
Source: Wayne Kjonaas, (765) 494-8000, wwkjonaas@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Related Web site:
Transportation Service
PHOTO CAPTION:
Bryan Keller, a Purdue University bus driver, displays an automatic external defibrillator that he has been trained to use in an emergency. The heart-starting devices are now available on all Purdue-owned buses. (Purdue University photo provided by Gail Riese, Physical Facilities communication manager)
A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/images/+2005/bus-defibs.jpg
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