Thomas Caddell and Aaron Parsons kicked at the carpet and blushed with pride when Rachel Moyer told them their actions could someday save someone’s life.

Moyer was in Moore County at FirstHealth’s Taylortown office to visit
Caddell and Parsons while they presented Automatic External defibrillators (AED) to West Pine Middle School and West End Elementary.

Caddell, a 14-year-old freshman at Pinecrest High School, said he and
Parsons were working on merit badge projects when they first saw a
demonstration of an AED, a machine designed to shock a heart into its normal
rhythm.

“That’s where we got the idea,” he said.

Moyer, whose 15-year-old son, Gregory, collapsed and died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) while playing high school basketball in December 2000, believes her son might still be alive if his school had had an AED at the time. Since Gregory’s death, Moyer has started the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund and traveled the country to raise awareness about the need for AEDs in schools.

“He had never been sick a day in his life,” Moyer said before showing a
video of a “Good Morning America” episode about her son’s death and her family’s effort to raise awareness about the need for AEDs. “It was a brand new, $70-million school, but it was out in the middle of nowhere and we couldn’t get help fast enough.”

Moyer said it was a treat to find out about Caddell and Parsons’ project.

“The idea that you guys decided to take it upon yourselves to go out and make a difference is incredible,” Moyer said. “What you’ve done is help educate your community. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

‘Desperately Needed’

Parsons, a 16-year-old sophomore at Pinecrest, says the duo started by gathering information.

“We asked questions to see what we could do about getting them into the schools,” Parsons said. “We got some posters and other information with facts about how AEDs can save lives. We got it approved by our scoutmasters and went from there.”

A large part of the process involved raising funds for the two AEDs, which cost about $2,000 each.

“We went around in the community getting donations and then we had a turkey shoot,” Parsons said. “We had a real good turnout and raised over $900 with that. A lot of people had fun, so that will probably end up being an annual thing.”

Parsons said fund-raising efforts got another big boost when the Carolina hotel agreed to pay for one of the two defibrillators. A $500 donation from the West End Elementary PTA is being used to train teachers how to use the AEDs.

Phyllis Magnuson, school health programs manager with FirstHealth of the Carolinas, said the efforts of Caddell and Parsons have finally given some impetus to a burgeoning effort to get at least one of the lifesaving machines on every Moore County campus.

“For about five or six years now, there’s been a movement to try and get some AEDs in the school system,” Magnuson said. “We had a big push about four years ago, but it fell through. It’s become increasingly clear that this is something desperately needed at our schools.”

Magnuson said she had been involved in meetings at the Moore County school system central office about getting AEDs into the school system when she heard about Caddell’s and Parsons’ Eagle Scout project.

“It was really serendipitous because this is exactly the kind of movement we were hoping to see,” Magnuson said. “This is a positive way to get it done. We have dodged a bullet in Moore County, so when the phone rang and they said they wanted to do this, we were very open to listening to them and hearing what they had to say.”

‘Planted the Seed’

Since Caddell and Parsons began their efforts, two schools have received AEDs and three more are set to receive units that have been pledged.

West End Elementary and West Pine Middle each received theirs from the Scouts, while Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants plans to donate one to Pinecrest High School. Magnuson said two others, including one from the Moore County school system and one from Moyer, are planned for North Moore High School and Union Pines High School, respectively.

“I guess that means we have 17 more to go,” Magnuson said.

John Corio, director of physical education and athletics for the Moore
County school system, said Caddell and Parsons’ project underscores a need to have AEDs on every campus.

“Hopefully, in the future what we’ll see, particularly in the larger
schools, is that you’ll have more than one AED on campus,” Corio said.
“These two boys deserve a lot of credit, because they have now planted the seed to get these lifesaving machines in the schools.”

Caddell said he didn’t think the project would garner as much attention as it has.

“But it’s a good thing because hopefully they’ll be able to get one in all
the schools,” he said.

Caddell’s father, Dwane, is the scoutmaster for Troop 8 in West End.

“We’re real proud of these boys,” he said. “We do our best to be involved in a lot of programs that help Moore County, and this is a community effort project.”

Thomas’ father, Bryan, said it’s hard to describe the feeling of knowing
that his son’s efforts could save a life.

“If this could save somebody’s life in the future,” he said, “then that’s
all that needs to be said. Saving a life is the most important thing you can do.”

‘Let the Beat Go On’

Jeff Maples, principal at West Pine, and Cindy Holland, principal at West
End, were both on hand to accept the AEDs on behalf of their schools.

“I’m excited about receiving this AED and thankful that nothing has happened here,” Maples said.

After the presentation of the AEDs, Moyer passed out red wristbands,
fashioned after the yellow ones popularized by Lance Armstrong’s cancer research campaign, that urge AED movement supporters to “Let the Beat Go On.”

They are emblazoned with a lightning bolt in a heart, representing the
lifesaving electrical charge issued by AEDs.

AEDs are designed to return a heart’s beating to its normal rhythm. They’re intended to help victims that are experiencing SCA.

SCA is an abrupt disruption of the heart’s function causing lack of blood flow to vital organs and resulting in loss of blood pressure, pulse and consciousness. SCA is most often caused by a type of arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) called ventricular fibrillation.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), more people die each year from SCA than from breast cancer, prostate cancer, AIDS, house fires, handguns and traffic accidents combined.

Most victims of SCA have no prior symptoms.

The AHA says survival is directly linked to the amount of time between the onset of SCA and defibrillation. If no CPR is provided, a victim’s chances of survival are reduced by 7 to 10 percent with every minute of delay until defibrillation. It’s estimated that 95 percent of SCA victims die before reaching the hospital.

Simple to Use

A blow to the chest can stop a normal, healthy heart, making SCA a risk for athletes participating in contact sports. But others with conditions like Marfan’s Syndrome or Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy are at risk in non-contact sports.

Former U.S. volleyball player Flo Hyman, who had Marfan’s Syndrome,
collapsed and died from SCA in 1986. Gregory Moyer had Hypertrophic
Cardiomyopathy, another heart condition that’s difficult to detect and can lead to heart stoppages.

The AEDs are designed to be used by just about anyone. They will not shock a victim unless he or she needs it. They are designed to be user friendly, with voice prompts that provide step-by-step instructions. Two pads are placed on a victim’s chest. The machine then checks for a regular heartbeat. If the heartbeat is irregular, then it issues a shock that briefly stops the heart, which allows it to restart at a normal rhythm.

“These are designed to be used by people who don’t have medical
backgrounds,” said Mark Hartman, sales representative with Cardiac Science, an AED manufacturer. “They’re designed for public places like schools. They are simple to use, and they could potentially save someone’s life.”

Reprinted with permission, The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC