BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — The Bowling Green City Schools district has added automated external defibrillators to all academic and athletic buildings after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law last week a bill mandating the devices in every public and private school in the state.
Crim Elementary School has two on its campus on Scott Hamilton Avenue. Principal Zeb Kellough said it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
"We wanted to make sure that, we were there to be the first responders to help take care of them. Get them to a place they can be safe, and we can get them to a proper facility," Kellough said.
He said having an AED next to the main office at the front of the building wasn't enough, so another one was added near the back of the school by the bus line and gymnasium. He said all faculty, staff and students know where the devices are and are trained not to fear them.
"The whole idea of school is that we're teaching kids not just reading and math and writing, but how to be better people, better citizens," Kellough said. "When they feel they can make that personal connection and they can step in, they can be the superhero, because they might be pulling this off the wall, to go help someone."
To help drive the message home, Kellough shared his own personal story of having to have open heart surgery to put in a mechanical heart valve in October 2021. 18 months later, he needed a stint put in.
"The kids are interested and so I'm like, 'if you can or you can get close to me, you can hear my heartbeat.' Kids will walk down the hall and all of the sudden a head is right here in my chest going. 'I hear it! I hear it!' So, they kind of embrace it and think it's kind of neat," Kellough said.
The most recent report from the American Heart Association found nine out of 10 cardiac arrest victims will live if they receive a shock from an AED in the first minute after an incident. The CDC's annual data finds of the more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, an estimated 70-90% die before reaching the hospital because of the lack of immediate treatment.