AED Saves Athletes Life

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New Hampshire Athlete Saved by CPR, AED

Special EMS Magazine Monthly Insider

As a football lineman, baseball catcher and hockey goalie, Matthew Keene is used to taking hits and bouncing back.

He's bouncing back again this time because his school was prepared for a hit no one could see coming - a hit that kills healthy athletes across the country every year.

Keene collapsed during football practice Oct. 18 of sudden cardiac arrest. The 17-year-old high school student wasn't breathing and had no pulse when coaches and trainers rushed to his side, performed CPR and shocked his heart into beating with a portable defibrillator.

That was the difference between life and death. Now Keene wants this lifesaving device in all schools.

"I don't want to hear this happen to anyone and have them not survive," he said.

Keene was stricken at Kimball Union Academy, a private school in Plainfield. Sitting in his bedroom at his home in Berlin this week, shelves jammed with sports trophies and his Kimball Union football jerseys hanging nearby, Keene said he realized he has gotten a rare second chance.

The American Heart Association says the survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest is 6 percent.

"I'm feeling pretty lucky," he said.

He accepts the fact that he's taken his last lineman's hit to protect a quarterback. He's set on a new goal: protecting others from dropping dead for lack of portable defibrillators, called automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

"I know the rest of my life I'm going to be known as the kid who collapsed on the football field, and I'd rather be told that by someone who knows someone who survived, not someone who would say 'Oh, my friend died,'" he said.

Sadly, local awareness campaigns and fund drives often begin after deaths, as happened in Houston, where four teenage athletes died this fall. Another was revived with the help of an AED.

"Keeno," as his teammates call him, is not sure what form his campaign will take. But he says he is living proof AEDs should be in every school, along every sideline, in every hockey rink and basketball court - for games and practice.

"They should be like anything else on the checklist when you go to a game," he said.

At Kimball Union, trainers with a defibrillator arrived in seconds.

"They knew what to do and did it," he said.

The machines, made by various companies, are about the size of a laptop computer and start at about $1,500. They deliver electrical impulses to a victim's heart. They connect to the victim's chest with adhesive electrodes and will not shock anyone who does not need it because they monitor heart rhythm.

Sudden cardiac arrest is caused by a problem with the heart's electrical system that causes irregular heartbeat, stopping the steady flow of blood.

Time is critical. The American Heart Association says a victim will die if normal heart rhythm isn't restored within minutes. For every minute without defibrillation, the odds of survival drop 7 percent to 10 percent. A victim who isn't defibrillated within 8 to 10 minutes has virtually no chance.

That means that even if the rescue squad, paramedics or police have defibrillators with them, help might arrive too late.

With a small heart monitor/defibrillator now implanted in his chest, Keene used his Thanksgiving week break to plan his campaign. One morning, he met with the athletic director at Berlin High School to talk about making the school's defibrillator available for athletics.

His mother, Edwina, has spoken with school superintendents in Berlin and neighboring Gorham about a project to get defibrillators in schools.

"If this were to happen to someone else, we would want them to have the same opportunity that Matt got," she said.

Keene and the Kimball Union trainers who saved his life also will help produce an educational and training video. Keene also met with state Sen. Peter Burling, a former Kimball Union trustee, about drafting legislation to require defibrillators at schools.

The Heart Association said Colorado, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Florida, Maryland and Virginia already require schools to have portable defibrillators. Lawmakers in Massachusetts and Texas will see proposals in their coming sessions.

Schools are just part of the national effort. Some states and cities require AEDs in public buildings. Others mandate them in health clubs, the subject of a bill awaiting the signature of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The national Rural AED Grant Program has helped place the devices, including 700 in New Hampshire, around the country. Many of New Hampshire's are in schools.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlighted their importance. It said that between 1996 and 2005, thousands of lives were saved with the help of AEDs.