Pocatello Parish installs four devices, trains parishioners to use them
Dave Berry (left), Nancy and Dan Anthony, and Principal Margie Gabiola show off a new AED installed at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Pocatello. (Courtesy Photo/Mike Doellman)
By Brad Bugger
for the ICR
The idea first came to Mike Doellman when attending Mass at St. Anthony’s Chapel in Pocatello. A woman fell in the main aisle during the liturgy. Someone called 911 to help her, and the priest gave her the Anointing of the Sick while everyone waited for the EMTs to arrive.
The woman eventually recovered, but “I thought, what if we had a really bad accident here,” said Doellman. “Besides getting the EMTs in, something should be done immediately.”
Doellman, a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Pocatello, put together trauma kits, with input from medical community members, and placed them in both chapels in Pocatello: St. Joseph’s and St. Anthony’s.
“They contain things like a simple tourniquet, heavy-duty blood clotting stuff – things you need right now,” said Doellman, the retired director of the Marshall Public Library in Pocatello.
After he got the first aid kits in place, Doellman was nagged by the need for automatic external defibrillators – AEDs.
“I looked into it – they ain’t cheap,” Doellman said. “I called the Diocese and talked to a person in risk management. He said we do have a deal through Catholic Mutual Group, our insurance company, which gave us a 10 percent discount.”
Doellman wanted to put five AEDs in various spaces around the parish, but even with the discount, it would be an expensive proposition – about $1,750 each. So, with the permission of the Holy Spirit pastor, he started reaching out to parishioners and various parish organizations to try to raise the necessary funds for the AEDs.
One parish family donated enough to place an AED in Holy Spirit Catholic School. After Doellman spoke at one of the Masses, parishioners and parish groups contributed enough to purchase three more AEDs.
Four AEDs in total were secured, but Doellman was not allowed to wait until the money was raised for the fifth device. The company offering the discounts said they would sell the AEDs in stock to other clients if they were not purchased immediately. He settled for four AEDS: one for the school, one in each chapel, and one in the parish hall.
Ironically, the AEDS arrived in Pocatello at about the same time that Doellman was dealing with his own medical issues. He fell during a vacation and suffered a head injury, which eventually required surgery.
While Doellman was recovering, Rita Sullivan, a Holy Spirit Parish Council member and a retired nurse, enlisted parishioner Dave Berry to install them in the four locations.
Then, Sullivan invited parishioners to learn how to use them. Twenty-five people came to the training. Sullivan is also counting on parishioners with medical backgrounds, or who have had training as part of their professional lives, to jump in and use the AEDs if the need arises.
Sullivan, who worked as a nurse for 40 years, said, “There were several people at each Mass that were willing to be trained and were comfortable using the AEDs.”
Studies have shown that defibrillating someone who is suffering cardiac arrest is the best way to ensure that person’s survival, Sullivan said.
“In the past, when there were resuscitation or cardiac events, the big emphasis was always on CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation),” said Sullivan. “In more recent times, they’ve come to realize that CPR is fine, but the best predictor of survivability is to defibrillate. The quicker you can defibrillate, the better the survivability of the victims. That’s why a lot of public places have installed AEDs.”
Sullivan said an AED is very simple to use. It comes in a box about the size of a first aid kit. You turn on the device, and it immediately begins giving you audio instructions on how to use it. It will instruct you how to pull out the pads and where to put them. It will then instruct you not to touch the patient while the machine checks the patient’s heart rhythm to see if they are “shockable.”
If the patient is shockable, the device will instruct you to press the button that delivers the shock to the patient’s heart. Once the shock is delivered, the machine will instruct you to begin CPR. Then, after a minute or two, the machine will instruct you again to refrain from touching the patient while it rechecks the patient’s heart rhythm.
While all this is happening, someone should call 911 to get professional assistance. “But rather than waiting 8 to 10 minutes for the EMTs to arrive, you’re giving a shock in the first minute,” said Sullivan.
“That’s what increases survivability.”
The AEDs were installed at Holy Spirit this past spring, but they haven’t been used so far. “Hopefully, they never will,” said Sullivan.
“We have a number of elderly people in our parish, and they are the most likely to need this. If we can get enough people trained, there’s just a much better chance that people will survive the event.”
The Diocese’s insurance carrier, Catholic Mutual Group, doesn’t require churches to have AEDs, but they are recommended.
Mike Doellman is one Pocatello parishioner who is glad his church has them: “We’re doing this for our church family,” he said. “We’re trying to help people. If their heart is stopped and you’re trying to get it going again, you’re doing a Jesus moment. You’re helping your neighbor, just like the Good Samaritan did.”
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