Larry was an energetic, loving, kind and intelligent 15 year old who loved sports, especially lacrosse. One of his athletic assets was his fine conditioning which he accomplished through distance running. Larry collapse during a community three mile run at Mohegan Park in Norwich Connecticut on August 16th 2007 due to ventricular fibrillation. 911 was called and CPR begun. When the ambulance arrived on scene the EMTs used an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) to restart Larry's heart and he was transported to Hartford Children's Hospital where he died three days later. Basically too much time had elapsed between Larry's collapse and the AED arriving on site.
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Once restarted Larry's heart was strong and tests could not determine why it had gone into ventricular fibrillation. What ultimately killed him was brain damage due to the lack of sufficient oxygen during CPR. We found out that at best CPR is 25% efficient and that when an AED is used within 4-6 minutes 80% of people will recover. When an AED is not available on site during a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) only 5% live.
We thought SCA in athletes was extremely rare, until we started researching. Don't be naive like we were. Spend a little time and look into sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes yourself, for the safety of your children.
Our goal is to purchase and place AEDs, provide training to volunteers and promote on-site AEDs at athletic events. This site will document our experiences in the hope that someone, someday, somewhere will get a second chance due to the AEDs we place and a raised awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in young athletes.
We have received overwhelming support and due to the generosity of many individuals and organizations have been able to place 52 AEDs to date. To see a listing click here:
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