WHEREAS the Heart and Stroke Foundation reports that up to 40,000 cardiac arrests occur each year in Canada (one cardiac arrest every 12 minutes) and without rapid and appropriate treatment, most of these cardiac arrests will result in death, and

WHEREAS thousands of lives could be saved through public access to automated external defibrillatorsⁱ, and

WHEREAS when an automated external defibrillator and CPR are immediately available, the chance of survival from sudden cardiac arrest is substantially improved¹, and when combined with CPR, the use of an automated external defibrillator may increase the likelihood of survival by 75% or more, ⁱⁱ, and

WHEREAS for every one minute delay in defibrillation, the survival rate of a cardiac arrest victim decreases by 7 to 10%, and after more than 12 minutes of ventricular fibrillation, the survival rate is less than 5% ⁱⁱⁱ, and

WHEREAS response time data for October, November and December of 2015 published by Health PEI reports the median response times in minutes (an average of these times shows Souris as 10:22, Montague as 10:12, Charlottetown as 7:31, Summerside as 8:20, O’Leary as 9:15 and Alberton as 12:09^iv), and

WHEREAS the estimated total number of students and staff present at island schools daily amounts to 21,242, and

WHEREAS automated external defibrillators are simple devices requiring little maintenance and can be safely and effectively used by trained and even untrained users, and

WHEREAS our schools are buildings vital to our communities and as such are used day to day after school hours by groups and organizations other than students and staff for meetings, sporting events and extracurricular activities, and

BE IT RESOLVED that the PEI Home and School Federation requests that the Departments of Education and Health provide funds to place and maintain automated external defibrillators in each school across PEI, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the PEI Home and School Federation requests that the Ministers of Education, Early Learning and Culture and Health and Wellness provide funds and establish a system to ensure that at least 50% of the staff at each school on PEI has current CPR and First Aid training at all times.

References:

i, ii, iii. Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Position Statement: PUBLIC ACCESS TO AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATORS (AEDs) 

iv. Health PEI