Schools need to ensure access to defibrillators

Last month I went to my daughter’s play at the high school in Langley. As luck would have it a local seniors group had been invited to tea and the play.

Halfway through the performance one of the seniors went into cardiac distress. Fortunately, two doctors and a firefighter were in the crowd who helped stabilize the man until the ambulance arrived.

The most frustrating thing was that the school’s AED — automatic external defibrillator — was locked in a room and no one was able to find the one person on site who supposedly had access.

Things worked out that time, but it’s only chance that there wasn’t a worse outcome.

It seems that availability and access to such an important piece of life-saving equipment is very inconsistent.

My mother, who works in the Ashcroft school district, says that the high school in Lillooet has an AED but none of the elementary schools.

But many elementary schools are routinely visited by seniors.

Do school districts consider the consequences of not having such essential firstaid equipment? Christopher Jenkinson, Langley