Three Hawke's Bay schools receive lifesaving gifts

Celebrating a gift of life are (from left) Sarah Manley, Alyssa Lee, Katrina Lee, Cody Booth, Leticia Windsor, Indira Moffatt and Maria Neville-Foster.

Sacred Heart College was one of three Hawke's Bay schools to be presented with a potential lifesaving AED (automated external defibrillator) from St John and ASB this year.

St John National 3 Steps for Life and GoodSAM programme lead Cody Booth presented an AED to Bledisloe School in Taradale in April, to Mangateretere School in early May, and to Napier's Sacred Heart College three weeks ago. Cody's role includes identifying schools in the area that are ideal locations to house an AED.

He says Bledisloe School backs onto a sports field and therefore close to those who are likely to require one; Mangateretere is on a main road that typically has a higher number of crashes than schools on quieter streets; and Sacred Heart College was selected because it neighbours Napier Girls' High School and therefore covers a large group of young people.

"Having an AED placed at your school not only supports your students, teachers, support staff and your whanau, but also your local community," Cody says.

"Hato Hone St John has a mission to empower all members of the public to step forward in an emergency and providing people with access to an AED supports more people in communities to do that."

All schools have expressed gratitude for the AED gifts, but it has had particular significance for Sacred Heart College where one of their students had performed CPR on a family member suffering a cardiac arrest last year before the ambulance crews arrived with an AED. Principal Maria Neville-Foster says increasing access to AEDs in the community will help save more lives.

"We know how important it is to have easy access to AEDs in our community because last year one of our whanau's lives was saved by an AED.

"Therefore, it was really important for us to be able to look after not only the Sacred Heart community but the wider Mataruahou (Napier hill) community, so if ever needed, we, too, could save a life."

Only one in 10 people is expected to survive a cardiac arrest, with those chances falling 10 per cent each minute an AED is not used. St John's latest Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) report reinforces that a person's chances of surviving cardiac arrest increased 44 per cent where an AED was at hand.

St John deputy chief executive for community health & iwi engagement Sarah Manley says St John is there to both respond to emergencies, and help prevent them from happening in our communities.

"St John wants to empower more of our tamariki with the knowledge of CPR and basic first aid, especially given that our latest OHCA report shows more than 2000 people suffered a cardiac arrest in New Zealand last year.

"St John's Ngā Tohu Whakaora e 3 (3 Steps for Life) programme is so valuable in ensuring this. It allows anyone who has done a free course to step forward when help is needed and increase cardiac arrest survival rates in their local community."

Any school or young persons organisation that is interested in receiving an AED and CPR education should email 3stepsforlife@stjohn.org.nz .