Public Safety Plans Ahead for Safer Campus

Creating a safer campus was the impetus behind one of public safety’s latest purchases, a pair of Automated External Defibrillators.

The AEDs, purchased two months ago for nearly $3,000 each, are devices used on patients suffering a heart attack or in other instances when the patient’s heart has stopped beating. The units deliver a shock of electricity designed to restore a normal heartbeat.

The units, no bigger than a laptop computer and weighing approximately eight pounds each, are identical to the ones emergency medical services use in ambulances, said Jeff Tilley, field training officer at Augusta State University’s Public Safety Office.

“We wanted to have the latest protection available for the safety of students and faculty,” Tilley said. “We’re one of the first schools in the area to have one.”

According to the American Red Cross, use of an AED, along with immediate CPR, could save up to 50,000 lives per year.

The units are automated and instruct the user where to place the electrodes, when to charge and when to administer the shock. It comes complete with scissors to cut open the patient’s shirt, a razor to shave any hair for better contact, and gloves and a mask for operator safety, he said.

Tilley was trained through the American Red Cross on how to use the device, as well as how to train others to use it.

Public Safety kept one of the units for their officers; the other is kept at the Physical Education/Athletic Complex. All public safety officers, as well as ASU coaches and athletic trainers, are trained on how to use the machine, Tilley said, as well as trained in CPR and first aid.