BESE member: Roemer rhetoric fails Louisiana’s students
August 14, 2014CRIME BLOTTER: Reported offenses in the Tri-parishes
August 14, 2014
Nearly a decade ago, tragedy struck the Barcia family.
In March 2005, A J and Nancy’s youngest son, Chad, a multi-sport athlete at De La Salle High School in New Orleans, abruptly passed away at age 17 due to sudden cardiac arrest.
The football, track and field and rugby player fell to the ground and died during a rugby match.
The presence of an automated external defibrillator (AED) – a device that helps restore normal heartbeat – could have saved his life.
Since then, A J and Nancy Barcia have carried on the memory of their son by trying to keep other parents from suffering the same painful loss, and the Terrebonne Parish School District and Terrebonne Parish families are the latest beneficiaries of the work of the Chad Barcia Athlete Awareness Foundation.
The foundation has donated more than 100 AEDs to schools and playgrounds around Louisiana since its inception in June 2005 and now 13 to Terrebonne Parish.
“It makes us feel good to know that if something does happen that there is something there to help save someone’s life,” Nancy Barcia said.
Nancy Barcia said the parish earned three of the AEDs by sending the most trainees to three AED training sessions, and the other 10 were straightforward donations. School district officials estimate the 13 AEDs cost about $20,000.
“That is a huge deal,” said Terrebonne Parish Superintendent Philip Martin. “Obviously it’s not a daily occurrence that you need an AED. It’s probably not even an annual occurrence. But if it’s once in a lifetime, for that life it’s worth all the effort and all the expense.”
Additionally, Martin said Terrebonne General Medical Center will donate some, and the school district has bought some, which would allow every school to have at least one defibrillator and high schools to have as many as four.
But simply having AEDs is one thing. Knowing how to use them is the other half of the battle. And Martin said Terrebonne General has been conducting AED training sessions with teachers, coaches, administrators, nurses and staff members at no charge to the school district.
“If you don’t know how to use them, you just assume not have them. Terrebonne General has stepped up to the plate big time, and we’ve had extensive training throughout the summer on individuals on how to use them,” Martin said.
In fact, the Terrebonne General Medical Center Community Sports Institute trained a whopping 208 school district faculty and staff members through their collaborative partnership.
“Knowing how to properly use this lifesaving equipment will make the difference in life or death situations for students at school and on the playing field,” said Terrebonne General President and CEO Phyllis Peoples. “Statistically, for every minute that you do not put an AED in use on a victim who is in need of resuscitation, there is a 10 percent chance of loss of life. TGMC understands this and is making sure that our teachers are aware of the importance of the use of AED’s in emergency situations.”
Martin said the school district is well on its way to being completely trained at every school to combat an unfortunate occurrence that isn’t as rare as one might think.
Nancy Barcia said sudden cardiac arrest is the No. 1 cause of death among young athletes, and an American high school athlete dies once every three days due to this unforeseen occurrence. However, she said that a person’s chances of survival go up from around five percent to between 50 and 75 percent if an AED and someone certified to use it is present.
“It saves lives, and that’s why we do this, because we know that if someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest and they have an AED on site, their survival rate goes up so much higher than if there’s nothing there,” Nancy Barcia said. “We’re so happy that Terrebonne Parish is being proactive in putting the AEDs in place before they would have some type of disaster.”
A disaster like the one Barcia described was narrowly avoided two years ago in Mandeville when a Lakeshore High School student suffered sudden cardiac arrest at school. Thanks to an AED on site, Ryan Coco survived.
“The doctors told his parents that if they wouldn’t have had an AED at the school that he would have not survived,” Nancy Barcia said.
It was a triumph in the face of devastation for the Barcias and a reminder that sudden cardiac arrest can strike any child at any time.
Those wishing to donate to the Chad Barcia Athlete Awareness Foundation can visit chadbarciafoundation.org for more information.
A J and Nancy Barcia, parents of Chad Barcia and founders of the Chad Barcia Athlete Awareness Foundation, stand next to the 13 automatic external defibrillators the foundation recently donated to the Terrebonne Parish School District.
