Defibrillators (AEDs) in all high schools

It's official

Within the next few months, all public high schools in the province will be equipped with an automated external defibrillator, and students in their third year of secondary school will receive training in its use.

Already, more than 570 public high schools in Quebec (including senior high schools, junior high schools and vocational schools, for example) are able to train their students in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Soon, all students and staff will be able to use the AEDs that will be installed.

As a result, the 400 or so public schools in Quebec offering the second regular cycle now have the necessary resources - instructors and equipment - to train their secondary three students in CPR.

Over two thousand (2000) teachers are already qualified as instructors to train students. This means that around sixty-eight thousand (68,000) young people are trained each year.

Training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been compulsory for high school students for the past two (2) years.

Soon, all these young people will have access to an AED and will be able to use it without delay.

It takes no more than four hours to provide the entire resuscitation training course.

At the press conference on Friday, November 22, 2019, Dr. Paul Poirier bluntly explained to students in attendance that in the event of cardiac arrest, this device plays a decisive role.

"The patient is dead. The worst thing you can do is resuscitate him. That's 10% death per minute. At 10 minutes, he's 100% dead. Either he's dead for a little while, and you resuscitate him, or he's going to die forever. It's that simple," said the cardiologist at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec.

Eighty percent (90%) of cardiac arrests occur in the presence of loved ones, who, not knowing how to intervene, can only dial 9-1-1 and wait anxiously for the paramedics to arrive.

"When everyone knows what to do in an emergency, more lives are saved. When people are given the power and skills to save lives, they step in. It's proven that when you don't know what to do, you don't move."

Carole Nadeau, ACT Foundation

A victim suffering cardiopulmonary arrest has up to a seventy-five percent (75%) chance of survival within the first three minutes of intervention with the use of an AED.

If we don't intervene, or intervene much less early, it's 10% of deaths per minute. So, do the math: if someone goes into cardiac arrest, after ten minutes, statistically, you're 100% dead.

So the figures say.

The main reasons for requiring all high schools to have an AED are obvious.

Let's not forget that these establishments often serve as community centers in the regions.

It's mainly people playing cosom field hockey and badminton who are more likely to suffer a heart attack in these schools.

This is all the more beneficial for the young and the elderly in the vicinity.

More than just defibrillation, the high school CPR program helps educate the population about health in general.

Within a generation, all public school children will have been trained in CPR at least once.

Cardiologist Dr. Paul Poirier, who campaigned for the purchase of the equipment, says he's now just waiting for a signal from Quebec City to equip elementary school.

It's because defibrillators are easy to use and effective that the doctor hopes it will be the turn of elementary school to be equipped with them.

Sources :

La Presse canadienne, Published November 22, 2019, Hundreds of schools to be equipped with automated external defibrillators

MARIE-EVE MORASSE, LA PRESSE, Published November 23, 2019 at 0:00 am, A defibrillator in every Quebec high school

Académie Saint-Bernard