Andrew's Legacy And Oxford EMS Donate AED Today

Monday, 13 May 2019 at 08:51

Today will mark the 45th donation for Andrew's Legacy as a school in Drumbo will now have a life saving AED on site.

DRUMBO - An automated external defibrillator will be donated to Blenheim District Public School this morning.

Oxford County EMS and Andrew's Legacy have teamed up to present the AED. The EMS department got this opportunity after they won the AED 4Life holiday video competition.

Paramedic Pedro Garcia says they selected the school that tends to have a faster response time for EMS to get to, simply based on that school's distance.

"Once we found out that Oxford EMS had won for a second consecutive year, the paramedics decided to partner with Andrew's Legacy and find another school to donate the AED together. Knowing Andrew's Legacy has had an outstanding commitment to Oxford County in wanting to provide as many AED's within the community, this year we decided to pick Blenheim District Public School. The way we wanted to pick the schools was by selecting the school that tends to be more of a response time for EMS, solely based on distance as these schools are located in rural areas of Oxford County, so that by the time EMS arrives on scene we know there was already a readily accessible AED that could potentially save a life."

The AED was donated to Oxford EMS after they won the AED 4Life holiday video competition last year. The department then donated the unit to East Oxford Public School. This video is won based on how much attention it gets on social media, based on the amount of views, likes and shares.

AED4Life is the supplier of AED's that are currently being installed in Thames Valley District School Board schools, courtesy of the late Andrew Stoddart's mother and several members of their family. This past weekend marked the four year anniversary of Andrew's passing.

Garcia says having one inside of a school can potentially save a life.

"We feel AED's are important to have everywhere in the community, however when it comes to schools and sports fields, there may be a child or adult present in these facilities who may have underlining medical condition that could potentially result in a life-threatening medical incident such as cardiac arrest. And of course, this is where the AED comes into place. Not only is EMS activated but by having an AED close by, anyone who knows how to use an AED will have easy and faster access to apply the AED to the patient and potentially result in saving the lives of children or adults who have experienced sudden cardiac arrest."

Through many supporters and businesses, the goal is to have an AED installed in all schools across Oxford County. Today will mark the 45th donation for Andrew's Legacy.