A positive outcome in most school medical emergencies depends heavily on time. How quickly the situation is identified directly impacts when emergency personnel are notified with essential details and when help is delivered.
Schools face on-premise medical emergencies daily so their preparedness plans are crucial.
Today, medical emergencies account for nearly 10% of safety incidents on school campuses. Additionally, medical phenomena such as sudden cardiac arrest—the No. 1 cause of death on school campuses, as well as the No. 1 killer of student-athletes—further underscore the need for a rapid and effective emergency response plan.
The most impactful safety plans empower every staff member to take action when an emergency occurs. Safety shouldn’t be seen as the responsibility of a small committee—it should be a shared commitment among hundreds of individuals, all prepared and ready to protect their school community.
How a Florida teacher responded to a cardiac arrest
In Spring 2023, a sophomore at Avon Park High School in Florida, collapsed during a class changeover. An algebra teacher was first on the scene. While she initially thought this incident was a head injury from a fall, she recalled steps from her safety training—never assume and always assess the situation.
When the algebra teacher moved the student’s hair from her face, she saw that the student’s face was blue. She immediately used her wearable panic button badge to get help.
Within a minute, a school health aid, teacher, school resource officer and others were at the scene to perform CPR. The staff had been trained to handle this type of emergency and knew they needed an automated external defibrillator to continue care.
In addition to the wearable panic button, the school’s administrators and incident responders had a digital campus mapping solution that not only identified where the alert for help came from but also could pinpoint where critical safety assets are located on campus. The mapping solution also maintains data on the assets’ service history to prevent instances of dead batteries or expirations that can affect function.
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In this instance, a teacher who received the alert for help went directly to where the school’s nearest AED was located and handed it off to a student who quickly delivered it to the group assisting the unconscious student.
Within five minutes of her collapse, the AED was administered and within the next eight minutes, the ambulance left the school and transported the student to a local hospital where she made a full recovery.
Alabama educators empowered on the playground
In Spring 2022, a student at Flomaton Elementary School in Alabama was on the playground at recess when a rock kicked by another child lodged in the student’s throat, causing him to choke.
A nearby staff member immediately notified emergency personnel using their wearable panic button. She also began performing the Heimlich maneuver on the student.
Within seconds, the assistant principal, nurse and a school resource officer were on the playground taking action. Within a minute, four more staff members were there. Due to the speed of help arriving, staff took immediate action and save the child’s life.
School medical emergencies happen—response is the difference maker
In these stories and many others, the themes of responsiveness and communication are apparent and highlight the critical nature of immediate response. Creating and implementing a reliable safety plan that everyone is trained on can be the difference between an accident or a tragedy.
The following criteria should be considered when creating a robust emergency response plan:
- Supports rapid response
- Distributes alerts immediately to appropriate responders
- Is accessible and available at all times
- Provides responders the precise location of the emergency
- Enables help to be requested from anywhere on campus
- Is easy to use
- Is available for every staff member
During medical emergencies, getting first responders to the correct location rapidly is critical. Often, the speed of response is the difference between life and death.
When every second matters, implementing practical, accessible and easy-to-use safety tools and resources is critical. With the right solutions, plans and training, staff are empowered to communicate effectively and take appropriate action in a crisis so that no time is wasted and lives are protected.
