Defibrillators installed for emergencies

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) have been installed in eight new locations around Contra Costa College's campus. From the Applied Arts Building to the Knox Center, the AEDs can be found scattered across the grounds for use in case of emergency.

AEDs are portable electronic devices that have the ability to resuscitate someone going into cardiac arrest. They automatically diagnose the cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal electrical activity in the heart) of ventricular fibrillation (a cause of cardiac arrest), and deliver an electrical shock to the person in danger.

Students and faculty will be able to find them if needed in white glass cabinets marked with the AED heart symbol on the front.

According to Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King, the new AEDs are user friendly and reasonably simple to operate. Once the glass cabinet is opened and the AED is activated, a recording begins instructing whoever is near.

"The pads themselves have pictures of international symbols that show you where to put them while the machine tells you what to do," physical education professor and pool manager Jim Ulversoy said.

Ulversoy teaches a life guarding class at CCC that goes over more detailed use of an AED, but he is assured that even the most inexperienced person could successfully administer the treatment as long as the directions are followed properly.

Donated by American Medical Response, the eight new AEDs are located in the AA Building, the Early Learning Center, the Gymnasium, the Health Sciences Building, the Library and Learning Resource Center, the Knox Center, the Physical Sciences Building and the Student Services Center.

These eight are joining two pre-existing AEDs that have resided in the Gym Annex Building and the Health Services Building, placed strategically to ensure that someone in need anywhere on campus can be reached by AED within minutes. The donation of the units was part of the AMR's Contra Costa County Public Access Defibrillator program.

"The AEDs are being installed districtwide, and we're the first to get them. The other two colleges (Diablo Valley  and Los Medanos ) don't have them up yet," King said.

Though the spread of the AEDs throughout a wider range of the campus may seem efficient, there are those who  argue the units' locations should take more into account where students are being more physical.

"I thought it was most important to have one in the football stadium and the Gym," King said. "That's what you read about — some athlete with a heart problem dropping. You don't hear about it happening in an economics class; it happens in the Gym," King said.

Ulversoy agreed that though a wider range for the AED spots is a good idea, he believes priority should have been the pool area. Even though there are AEDs located in both the Gymnasium and the Gym Annex Building, Ulversoy explained that it would still take time to transfer the unit to the pool or the field during an emergency.

"(From the pool), we'd have to go out the side gate, grab the AED and come all the way back around (to the pool). That's four or five minutes of crucial time lost," Ulversoy said.

However, the existence of the AEDs is still just precautionary. Of the existing two in the Gym Annex Building and Health Services Center, athletic trainer Brian Powelson, who has dealt with countless sprains and bruises, said he hasn't needed one during the past four years.

Even though the units themselves were donated to the school, CCC still had to pay the labor costs of installing them. Though with a look back to September  2009 when CCC football player Wali Wright sustained a near-fatal injury during a game on campus and was saved by timely CPR, the insurance of the new AEDs is certainly comforting to many.

"If they save even one person, it was worth it," King said.

Contact Cassidy Gooding at cgooding.advocate@gmail.com.