BOULDER, CO--Fairview High School senior Max Dorfman learned of the lifesaving power of automated external defibrillators in 2010 when his father, a doctor, was involved in using one of the devices to restart the heart of a 13-year-old boy who collapsed while running the Bolder Boulder.
Dorfman didn't witness the incident but said his father told him that anyone with access to one of the easy-to-operate devices, commonly called AEDs, could have saved the boy's life.
"Thinking more of really why this kid was saved, it was a little device that can shock your heart and bring it back into normal rhythm," said Dorfman, 18.
In 2012, he said, he began noticing a lack of AEDs in places he thought they belonged, such as gyms and schools. He started researching AED availability in Boulder County, then launched efforts to bring them to more businesses and public facilities in hopes they could save lives.
Those efforts were boosted last month when American Medical Response provided Dorfman and a steering committee he assembled with an $18,000 grant as part of the medical transport company's work with the Medtronic Foundation's HeartRescue Project.
The grant was awarded through the nonprofit Boulder Community Hospital Foundation, which matched it, providing a pool of $36,000 to put toward purchasing AEDs and raising awareness about their ability to save lives.
"I just felt excited and relieved to finally overcome all the red tape and walls and barriers that I faced," Dorfman said of the grant.
Dorfman and the committee -- which includes his dad, Dr. Todd Dorfman, Boulder High School student Alec Haukeness, Boulder police Deputy Chief David Hayes, American Medical Response operations manager Debra Hopgood and Boulder Community Hospital emergency medical services coordinator Josh Rust -- initially plans to purchase 12 AEDs. For $22,500, Max Dorfman said, they should be able to buy and maintain the machines for eight years.
The goal is to place them in Boulder police cars, as a stepping stone to eventually having one available in every first-responder vehicle in Boulder County, he said.
"There is huge data proving that AEDs in police vehicles and other first-responder vehicles can hugely increase survival rates for citizens," Dorfman said.
Lynn White, national resuscitation director for American Medical Response, approved the grant proposal.
"(Max) is the youngest person who has done this sort of pulling the community together," White said. "One of the consequences of having a multidisciplinary group like this is you get folks to work together for a common cause, and that is always good for patient care."
White is also education director for the HeartRescue Project, which aims to increase survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest, or the unexpected shutdown of the heart. The condition claims the lives of about 350,000 Americans annually, according to HeartRescue data.
"Those people have a really good chance of surviving if something is done right away," White said. "One thing is compressions -- push on the chest hard and fast -- and the other thing is defibrillation, which gets the heart restarted."
To use an AED, all one needs to do is place the pads on a person's chest and wait for the machine to indicate if the person needs to be shocked, White said. If the person does need to be defibrillated, a light will come on and the operator only has to press a button to administer the shock.
Fairview High Principal Don Stensrud said he supports Dorfman's mission. The school has an AED, but it did not have one six years ago when a student who suffered from a pre-existing heart condition collapsed there and later died.
"I would say every school needs to have one," Stensrud said. "You never know what is going to happen."
According to the grant conditions, 75 percent of the American Medical Response money must be used for purposes other than equipment. Dorfman said he and the steering committee are considering plans for AED awareness projects or fundraisers.
"There is still a long way to go with AEDs in our community, but right now I am trying to make the biggest difference I can in the shortest amount of time," he said.
SOURCE: Daily Camera Boulder News