Emergency Response
April 07, 2011
Missie McGuire
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
Tulane University
Emergency Preparedness begins with an organized university-wide pre-storm and post-storm response to any natural disaster your campus may be susceptible to. There should be three primary objectives to an emergency plan in a collegiate environment: 1) to provide safety and security for students, faculty and staff, 2) to assist in minimizing and mitigating property damage, and 3) to provide a blueprint for the restoration and resumption of academic and business operations.
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April 07, 2011
Wallace Eddy, Associate Director, Risk Management
Carrie Tupper, Assistant Director, Aquatics
University of Maryland, College Park
As we plan for emergency response, there is one area we often neglect: the post emergency experience, which includes: (1) documenting the incident and our response to it, (2) communication (including dealing with reactions of staff and managing communication activity), and (3) evaluation – learning from our experience. Part of any emergency response plan should be a follow-up protocol that addresses the above points.
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April 07, 2011
Making Sure Key People are in the Loop
Jim Langel
Associate Director, Facility Management
University of Northern Iowa
When an emergency takes place in your facility or during a university sponsored event, you want all facets of your Emergency Action Plan to function smoothly and cover every detail to insure the best care possible for those affected. Once every detail of your Policies and Procedures Manual is implemented perfectly and the participant is in the best possible hands you have to ask, “Is there anything left to do?”
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April 07, 2011
Ian McGregor, Ph.D.
McGregor & Associates
Background: Sudden Cardiac Arrest and AED’s
- Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is one of the leading causes of death in North America. It strikes more that 200,000 Americans each year, nearly one death every two minutes.
- SCA is caused by ventricular fibrillation, a condition in which the heart’s electrical impulses suddenly become chaotic, causing the heart to cease pumping blood effectively. Many victims of SCA have no prior symptoms. SCA can strike anyone at any time. Victims of SCA will quickly loose consciousness, often without warning, and unless there is quick intervention, death will occur within a few minutes.
- SCA is treatable using an AED (Automated External Defibrillator).
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April 07, 2011
Katharine M. Nohr, Esq.
Miyagi Nohr & Myhre, Honolulu
Question: If a guy keels over, apparently from a heart attack, and I use the athletic facilities’ AED in an attempt to save the guy’s life, and he dies anyway, can his estate sue me?
Answer: Anyone can sue.
The frustrating thing is that this is always the answer when addressing the question of whether someone can sue in the United States. The important question is whether you will likely be held liable for your actions or omissions. Even more frustrating is sorting out the state of the law regarding AED. The good news is that you are probably primarily concerned about the state in which your facility is located and so, with some diligent research, you can find out what your state’s law is as of this date. Remember, state laws are always in flux as your state legislature meets each year and so you will have to check whether any new AED bills have been passed, and if so, when they take effect. The National Center for Early Defibrillation has a handy AED Legislative Table that was last updated in the Spring of 2005, which can be reviewed by looking at their website at www.early-defib.org.
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April 07, 2011
Wallace Eddy and Carrie Tupper
Campus Recreation Services
University of Maryland (College Park)
Experience becomes learning when it is reflected upon, considered in light of prior learning, and actively applied to future experiences (Kolb, 1984). At the University of Maryland we have had several experiences involving cardiac arrest. What has been disheartening to staff who are responsible for teaching CPR/AED skills to our professional and student staff is that none of the victims were able to be revived. A careful process of incident review was conducted after each incident, including discussion of CPR/AED protocol followed and immediate documentation of activity.
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