NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊManchester Community School Corporation's newest piece of technology is one they hope stays unused.

Thursday afternoon, Dan Redmond, vice president of sales and marketing at Save-A-Life, demonstrated the use of two Zoll Automated External Defibrillators to administrators at Manchester High School.

"Hopefully, all of this collects dust," said Redmond. "You can't save everybody, but if you get to someone (having a heart attack) within the first two minutes, there is an 80 percent chance of survival. ... After five minutes that rate drops drastically."

Thanks to a $4,071.42 grant from the Community Foundation of Wabash County, Manchester Community Schools purchased two AEDs, two alarmed cabinets to store the devices and an AED training unit. The devices will be installed in the Manchester High School and Manchester Junior High School buildings.

The Zoll AED unit talks a person through the rescue process. From checking the victim for a pulse, to calling 911, to shocking the heart and performing CPR, the machine explains what to do each step of the way.

The unit, which runs on 10 ABC-123 lithium batteries, only shocks a victim if it is necessary. The device analyzes the patients before sending current into the body.

"There is no way to accidentally shock a patient," said Redmond. "If it senses a heartbeat, it does not go off. There is no way to hurt someone with this machine."

Once the machine determines it is necessary to shock a patient, it instructs everyone to step away from the patient, and administers the shock until the heart starts beating again. Once the heart is beating, the machine gives specific instructions for administering CPR. The device can even detect when CPR compressions are not strong enough and tells the person performing the rescue to push harder.

Once emergency personnel arrive, they can look at the defibrillator to see how long the person has been attached to the machine and how many times the person was shocked. Other information that may be needed by doctors treating the person later are recorded in the device and can be accessed using special software available from Save-A-Life.

"Our buildings are public access buildings; many different people of all age groups and health issues pass though our doors," said MCS nurse, M.A. Hire, RN. "Our buildings also host many events outside the classrooms such as banquets and sporting events. We want to have state of the art emergency care equipment available in the unfortunate event of a cardiac arrest victim."

The AED can administer up to 300 shocks on one set of batteries. It also does a self-check daily and sends out a chirp sound similar to a smoke detector if the batteries get low.

The new devices installed in the Manchester buildings are stored in a clear cabinet affixed to the wall. The cabinet is equipped with a 105-decibel alarm that sounds if opened.

Redmond said the devices have been installed in several other schools throughout the state, only one has had a problem with a student trying to tamper with it. He added that if the school has fire alarms and fire extinguishers that the student do not bother, there should not be a problem with the AED. [[In-content Ad]]