News - St. Joseph's/Candler Sports Medicine provides defibrillators for area schools

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St. Joseph's/Candler Sports Medicine provides defibrillators for area schools

Paul P. Hinchey
President & CEO
St. Joseph's/Candler

Betsy Yates
Public Relations Manager
St. Joseph's/Candler
(912) 819-8139
yatesb@sjchs.org

August 15, 2006

To enhance the response to emergencies at area sporting events, St. Joseph's/Candler Sports Medicine used proceeds from its 13th annual golf tournament this summer to purchase Automated External Defibrillators (AED) for eight local high schools and colleges that contract with St. Joseph's/Candler for sports medicine services.

An AED is a small, portable device that is attached to a person's chest to monitor the heart and, if necessary, automatically administer an electric (defibrillating) shock to restore natural rhythm. The eight new AED's will be incorporated into each school's athletic emergency plan and will be available for use by St. Joseph's/Candler Certified Athletic Trainers as well as other school personnel that are trained to perform CPR including the use of an AED. AED's play a crucial role in immediate emergency care as they help guide rescuers through the entire rescue process-from ABC assessment to defibrillation and CPR.

'Our goal with the tournament has always been to provide our coaches with an environment of sportsmanship, recreation, and fellowship with our physicians and sports medicine staff at the end of the school year. It is a great way for us to show our appreciation to our customers,' said Joe Winburn, Manager of Sports Medicine.

'This year instead of focusing on tournament prizes and awards, we saw an opportunity to work with our tournament supporters to help the schools put AED's into place to help them handle emergency situations and increase the safety of school athletic programs for students, school personnel, and spectators,' Winburn said.

Schools that received AED's for this year included:

Effingham Co. High School
Benedictine Military School
St. Vincent's School
Savannah State University
South Effingham High School
St. Andrew's School
Groves High School
Screven Co. & Tattnall Co. (available when SJC personnel are present)

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