Principals sounded alarm over defibrillators after boy's death

Dozens of principalswith Ottawa's largest school boardflagged potentially serious problems withdefibrillators in their schools months after the death of an eight-year-old boy who went into cardiac arrest during recess, CBCNews has learned.

Their concerns, includingmissedinspections, insufficient trainingand expired or inaccessible devices, are detailed in the results of a board-wide survey obtained by CBCthrough a freedom of information request.

Eight-year-old Griffin Martin's heart stopped beating while he was playingwith friends during recess on the morning of Feb. 24,2017.

• Interactive feature: A heartbeat away
• Defibrillators coming to all OCDSB schools after CBCreport

His school,Orleans Wood Elementary,did not have a defibrillator on site. ACBCinvestigation found it was just one of 78 Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB)elementaryschools without a defibrillator.

Unlike in other provinces, schools in Ontario are not required by law to have Automated External Defibrillators, also called AEDs.

Family 'absolutely shattered'

While it's not known whether quick access to an AEDwould have saved the boy's life, his parents launched a campaign to equip all schools with the devices.

We have a right to expect higher standards. We send our kids to school 200 days a year with the assumption they'll be safe.- Damien Martin

"Our family has been absolutely shattered by this," said Damien Martin, Griffin's father."We have a right to expect higher standards. We send our kids to school 200 days a year with the assumption they'll be safe."

On May 1, more than two months after Griffin's death, the OCDSB sent a survey to the principals of all 151 schools, including high schools, middle schools and elementaries. Its purpose was to"determine the feasibility, including installation needs, and any necessary training" on the devices.

According to the boardsome principalshad requested defibrillators following Griffin Martin's death, sothe survey was also a means of determining which schools had AEDsand which didn't.

Requests from principals

The survey results showed a total of 69 OCDSB schools had defibrillators, while 82 did not. Sixteen principals of schools without the devices directly appealed for them in their responses to the survey. (Most, but not all of the respondents' names were redacted from the survey results obtained byCBC.)

"We would like to have one at Manor Park. Our school is used regularly in evenings for adult sports and we are also a polling site for elections and have a high number of elderly people in the school during these times," wrote the elementary school's principal.

"Between the two OCDSBOutdoor Education Centres, 25,000 students (not including rentals) will visit these outdoor classrooms this school year," wrote Kevin Wallace, coordinator of the centres, which were included in the survey."To ensure student safety, an AED should be installed."

Missed inspections

Of those principals whose schools already had defibrillators, more than one-third reported thatrequired monthly inspections were not being carried out, or that staff had not been trained to carry out the inspections.

Among those wasCrystal Bay Centre for Special Education, home to nearly 100students with moderate to profound developmental disabilities.

If somebody does go into cardiac arrest we want a machine that works, not something that's basically a paperweight.-Marc-AntoineDeschamps, Ottawa Paramedic Service

"No training has been provided since the initial installationyears ago," thatschool's principalcommented in the survey."Many staff including chief [custodian] have changed since that time.... New chief has received no training."

"From your survey, now I wonder...who should be inspecting it monthly?" asked the principal of ElmdalePublic School.

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, monthly inspections involve checking to make sure adefibrillator's battery is charged andpads are attached, that it's not damaged and that it hasn't expired.

It's a process Ottawa paramedics say takes less than a minute.

"If somebody does go into cardiac arrest we want a machine that works, not something that's basically a paperweight," said paramedicsspokespersonMarc-AntoineDeschamps. "So inspections areextremely important."

Staff training lapsed

Severalprincipals also raised concerns that school staff either needed to be re-certified to use the devices in a medicalemergency, or had received no training at all.

"Staff who were trained indicated that the training was over 4 years ago and they do not remember how to use [the defibrillator]," respondedthe principalof Charles H. Hulse elementary school.

The principal of Fielding Drive Public Schoolpointedly responded thatthe board had refused tocover the cost of annual defibrillator training.

"This course expires each 12 month period and training staff is very costly if the school... is setting it up," wrote the principal. "I have a student with a [condition] and we have paid for 5 to 8 staff to be trained each of the last 3 years. When I asked for central funding I was denied."

The four-hour training course costs approximately $45 per participantand includes CPR instruction.Paramedics said although training isnot mandatory to use a defibrillator in a medical emergency, it does helpmanyusers feel more confidentin what can already be a highly stressful situation.

AEDs set to expire in 2018

The surveyrevealed at least three schools whose defibrillators were actually in nearby community centres, prompting concerns about accessduring a medical emergency.

More than half of the defibrillators currently in OCDSBschoolsare set toexpire in 2018, the survey showed, while at least one, at AgincourtRoad Public School, had expired two months before the survey was distributed.

"Please add another AED unit to our school, as this September we have a [student] joining our school who is medically fragile with [a condition and] could suffer heart failure during a seizure or at anytime, according to parents and medical team etc., and emergency usage of AED may be required until paramedics arrive," wrote the school's principal.

Then there are the schools that received defibrillators, but neverinstalledthem.

"In some cases the units hadn't been installed," saidMike Carson, superintendent of facilities for OCDSB, in an interview.

Initial rolloutrushed

Carson said when the board received the first AEDsas a donation five years ago, administrators may have underestimated the amount of maintenance and training involved, and may have rushed their installation.

"The initial installation rollout really didn't capture all of the complexities of it," said Carson. "I think we all could have done a better job communicating with people why they were there, what's involved in the maintenance."

I think we all could have done a better job communicating with people why they were there, what's involved in the maintenance.- Mike Carson, OCDSB

Since CBCbrought the issue to light in October, the OCDSB has promised to install defibrillators in all its schools. However that's not expected to happen until the end of the school year in June 2018.

Carson said chief custodians have been told they're in charge of carrying out monthly inspections, andthe boardrecently signed a contract with Ottawa paramedics to oversee the maintenance of the devices in case those inspections turn up problems.

The board also plans to provide "regular" staff training, but it's not clear when that will occur.

Meanwhile Damien Martin says it's clear the board has more work to do.

"If you're going to put them in you've got to do it right," Martin said. "My son [may have] died because of a lack of an AEDat the school. That can't happen again. That is the potential impact of not taking it 100 per cent seriously."

While the board sorts out its response to the tragedy, the Martins havealready donated 13 defibrillators to OCDSB schools through his own campaign.

Among the schools to receive one of the devices from the Martins was Orleans Wood, where theirson Griffin died.

Ottawa father is troubled OCDSB hasn't been properly maintaining defibrillators

8 years ago

Duration 0:35

Damien Martin's eight-year-old son Griffin died in February, 2017. His school did not have a defibrillator that may have helped. Martin has now become an advocate to install the devices in all schools.