Another expert disagrees. The very rarity of cardiac arrests at schools makes having AEDs available unnecessary, he said.
"Any cardiac arrest in a student, especially if it occurs on school grounds, gets a lot of media attention," said Dr. Byron Lee, an associate professor of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "This has led some to call for AED in every school."
However, because cardiac arrest at schools is extremely rare, and only a minority of cardiac arrests occurs in the students, "it seems unlikely that putting an AED in every school would be cost-effective," Lee said.
More information
For more information on heart attack, visit the American Heart Association.
SOURCES: Tom Rea, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor, medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., professor, cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles; Byron Lee, M.D., associate professor, cardiology, University of California, San Francisco; Sept. 18, 2007, Circulation
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