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Roper hopes to give 'spark of life' to local schools


(Dan Michener/WCIV)
(Dan Michener/WCIV)
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- A Lowcountry hospital system is trying to save lives in tri-country schools by offering the gift of technology and training.

Roper St. Francis Hospital wants to donate an Automatic External Defibrillator device, or AED for short, to every school in the tri-county area. The device sends an electronic shock to the heart of someone who is dealing with cardiac arrest.

"Roper St. Francis, through the Medical Society of South Carolina, donates approximately 30 AED's to the community per year," said Roseann Teckman, Roper's AED coordinator.

Since 2006 the Roper St. Francis Heartsave program has provided free AED devices and CPR training to 460 public places throughout the Lowcountry .

"We hope that one day an AED is just as frequent as a fire extinguisher," said Teckman. "It's important for increased survivability to have an AED placed on them within the first three minutes of their emergency."

Providing every school in the tri-county area with an AED is the ultimate goal of the Heartsave program but it's a huge task that doesn't come cheap. Each device costs almost two thousand dollars.

"There is a grant committee here that takes a look at grant requests once a quarter," said John Holloway, CEO of the Medical Society of South Carolina. "We look for things we can do that truly enhances healthcare in the community."

Grant money that comes from the Medical Society of South Carolina reaches nearly two hundred thousand dollars a year and pays for each device and training.

"It's one of those things you don't think about until you need it," said Holloway. "We hear so many stories where lives have been saved because of it."

Those at Roper say the program owes a lot to its Cardiologist Dr. Grossman. They say Grossman has been a key figure in getting AED's and training in every school.

Statistics show having an AED during an emergency increases the probability of survival up to 80 percent.

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