Last month, during a school basketball game, 15-year-old Evan Blanch was playing when his heart suddenly stopped and he collapsed on the court, reports Brendan Brightman and Deanna Durante for NBC10 Philadelphia. The young man was recently able to meet and thank the first responders who saved his life.
Ann Marie DiSteffano, a nurse at Penn Medicine, was at the game to watch her son on the opposing team. When Blanch collapsed, she rushed to the court and performed CPR on him.
“It’s got a 10% survival rate. It’s the leading cause of death for student athletes,” Evan’s mother, Jennifer Blanch, said of pediatric cardiac arrests. “I never knew any of that before. Never paid attention.”
The school gym did not have its own AED to restart Blanch’s heart, so they had to wait until a Central Bucks ambulance arrived to use theirs.
Now, Penn Medicine Doylestown Health is raising awareness about the importance of having AEDs available.
Penn Medicine’s Community Heart Beat Program is working to ensure that youth sports, educational institutions and community facilities have AEDs available.
“Of the patients who need a defibrillator, 9 out of 10 will survive,” said Dr. Thomas Dienna.
The Doylestown Health Foundation hopes to launch a program that will allow community groups to apply for AED funding through local donations.
Learn more about how a local nurse’s quick action helped save Evan Blanch’s life and about the push for AED access in community spaces at NBC 10 Philadelphia.
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