AIBU to disagree with PTA buying defibrillator for primary school?

[Babylon1]

That's it really.

I'm on the governing body at local primary school and the PTA have decided they are going to purchase a defibrillator for the first aid kit.

This is really down to one member of the PTA having suffered a terrible loss due to congenital heart defect which was undiagnosed in a child. NOT a child at this school I hasten to add.

Now, as a governing body, we have a wish list of what we would ideally like the PTA to help purchase, and at the moment we are prioritising interactive whiteboards, a new reading scheme and some new phonics materials - resources that will be used EVERY day by the pupils.

The PTA are insistent in buying the defibrillator ASAP, and I am equally insistent that we neither want/need it for the following reasons:

1. The likelihood of it EVER being used is hopefully very very slim

1. There is an ambulance station with trained medics less than 5 mins away at normal driving pace. On blues and twos an ambulance would/could be present inside of two mins.

1. There has been no consultation with staff, yet 5 of them would be expected to be happy to be trained to administer the defibrillator if it

was required.

1. There has been no consultation with parents to ascertain if they would be happy for their DCs to be defibrillated at school by a non-professional medic (I certainly wouldn't be)

Before I would be in the slightest happy about this, I want a demo from the company providing the equipment on how easy it is to use, bearing in mind it is a paediatric defibrillator.

I want to know who will make the decision that the defibrillator is required - ie who is going to diagnose the child with a failing heart?

What happens if/when it goes wrong? Will the administrator of the defibrillator be held responsible?

So am I being unreasonable?? Really appreciate your thoughts here as I need to feed back to governors at next meeting.

. Another zombie. !!!!!

There might not be an ambulance available at the nearby hospital. They could all be out on other calls, so being close isn't a guarantee of a two minute arrival time.

This thread is 3and a half years old!!!!!!

It 'popped into your inbox' ???? and you just happen to be called 'Dfibhelp' wow! what are the odds

WARNING _ ZOMBIES

Indeed Ghosty. 'Popped into their inbox' and they still didn't bother to look at the date of the thread or bother to rtft to see that it had been resolved.

Can't believe people are still telling the OP they're being unreasonable. Just proves who rtft and who doesn't...

Why would a long dead thread Pop into someone's inbox
I am

A bit unlikely it "popped into their inbox" unless they have some kind of trawler bot that is going round websites and sending emails to them whenever it finds a relevant active thread. Which, since these threads aren't locked out when they GO ZOMBIE, this one would appear to be.

Perhaps we should ask MN to consider locking threads out after a period of time?

Many adults are in or visit any school who could suddenly fall ill. Not just at parents evening or for school concerts. I agree with the PTA.

I think it's been discussed before about locking old threads and I think it's an excellent idea, especially when they're as old as this one.

There were a couple of weird zombie threads last week too.

And a couple of months back I had to alert HQ to someone who bumped three threads about stocking and suspenders in about 20 minutes. Obviously someone with a fetishism but honestly. If old threadschool were locked it wouldn't have happened.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

THIS IS A DEAD THREAD.

I might start a thread about it in site stuff, Lilac.

As a Paramedic myself I would just like to add to this thread what an invaluable lifesaving bit's of kit these defibrillators are. It's been shown that early defibrillation saves lives whether done by a member of the public using one or trained paramedics. Child cardiac arrests are incredibly rare but they do happen and this bit of kit could potentially save lives.
The defibrillators that are used by 'bystanders' and put in public places are all automated and so the machine makes the decision whether to shock or not.
Ambulance crews these days are often incredibly busy and are rarely on ambulances stations so the chances that they are sat on station if you were to have to make that dreaded 999 call is slim. I personally have been sent to cardiac arrests over a 20 minute drive away (in a rural area) and bystander CPR and defibrillation is vital if someone will have the chance to survive.
These defibrillators will also be able to be used on adults if a member of staff were to collapse. CPR training is also vital.
There are quite a few charities around that raise money to put these machines in public places so maybe you could look into this if money is an issue?
Having dealt with paediatric cardiac arrests first hand I cannot begin to explain how awful they are and how vital these defibrillators can be so in that respect I think YABU however I understand your concerns and hopefully these can be laid to rest with more research.

Jeez the op admitted 3 YEARS AGO THAT SHE BU

It popped into your inbox so you thought it was a recent thread?

So why the need to change your name to defibhelp, before posting on it?

fucking zombie thread.. ::goes to get her post deleted::

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

THIS IS A DEAD THREAD.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

THIS IS A DEAD THREAD.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

THIS IS A DEAD THREAD.

Just trying to ram the point home. (NOt to you Skully, sorry to read about your cousin :( )

The 2 minutes wait for the ambulance is great if it happens to be in the station.

Very interesting

The number of children who go into shockable rhythms during a cardiac arrest are vanishingly small. Most children who suffer a cardiac arrest (especially at primary school age) do so for non cardiac reasons. Defibrillation would not help them.

Defibrillation is dangerous (staff have died in hospitals due to being shocked by accident during patient treatment). Automated defibrillators make this process safer but are not fool proof. Defibrillators in children's ^hospitals are used more for relatives / visitors than for the kids.

I don't really see the need for one in a primary school within easy reach of healthcare.

Focusing on good quality CPR training which can benefit everyone in the community would be a better use of the cash if it has to go towards something like this.

. Sorry for your tragic loss, Skully.

Ah zombie thread.

OH FFS

Defibrillators used in schools, shopping centres, community halls etc are very easy to use. But, won't shock a patient if it's not n edged. Once the 2 pads are in place, the user turns the machine on, the machine analyses the heart rhythm. If it's a shockable rhythm (of which there are only 2), it advises to shock the patient. Which the operated does. The machines now a days are extremely sophisticated and you can't shock a patient if the rhythm isn't a shockable one

Well, I posted in this thread three years ago, and gave since changed my stance, and not because of the thread resurrection.

Jesus.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE.

The thing I am finding most frustrating about MN at the moment is the number of people who pile in without bothering to rftf. If a thread is 600+ messages long, there is a really good chance the OP will have updated, responded, given extra information. If people just read the OP's posts it wouldn't even matter that they didn't realise it was a zombie, they'd realise that the situation had been resolved and concluded.

I am really sorry for those who have had tragic losses and why you might read the OP and jump in.

and *do understand why

Sorry for the missing words in that final para