PICTURED: Rachel Moyer with a photo of Gregory and a portable defibrillator. Photo by Michael Weisbrot.

SEE ALSO: State Education Department: Public Access Defibrillation in Schools

In the way that grief and tragedy can stir individuals to action, Rachel Moyer has worked for a year at getting Automatic External Defibrillators to any place where children gather.

A veteran teacher and member of the Port Jervis Teachers Association, she has lugged a child-sized yellow briefcase across the Hudson Valley, Pennsylvania and to Washington, D.C., to show anyone - even U.S. senators - how to use the device that saves lives.

With the satisfaction of each training comes indescribable pain. Every teaching moment calls forth a memory of her only son, Greg, who died Dec. 2, 2000. He fell unconscious after playing the first half of a basketball game at a rural Pennsylvania high school. The nearest hospital was more than 25 miles away. Without an AED to administer an emergency shock to restart his heart, the 10th-grade honor student died.

Out of the tragedy, the family first donated organs and then set up the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund to provide the devices to school systems, libraries and community centers.

To date, the fund has raised $140,000 and donated almost 40 AEDs to schools, fire companies and ambulance corps, as well as a YMCA, a library and parks. The fund has also helped area churches, businesses and medical groups purchase another 35 AEDs at special rates.

"Each time we donate an AED or see one purchased through his fund, it makes me feel that we have lit another candle in our son's memory," Rachel Moyer said.

The fund does more than light candles. On Oct. 22, an 11-year-old child suffered cardiac arrest at Monsignor McHugh Elementary School in Pennsylvania. Staffers used the AED Greg's fund had purchased only weeks earlier. Doctors from St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia told Moyer that Danny Golden would never have survived if the AED had not been used as quickly as it was.

"This was the second save since we started donating AEDs and training people," said Moyer, a former social studies and English teacher in Scotia-Glenville, Schenectady County, who now teaches special ed fifth-graders in Port Jervis.

"It only takes four hours to learn," said Moyer. "It is a lifesaving skill that one hopes to never have to use."

In October, the PJTA negotiated that all coaches and school nurses must be provided with training on using AEDs.

Everyone wins

"It's a win for everybody in our school district because now we have a lot of people trained in these lifesaving skills," said William Hubbard, PJTA president.

AEDs, which retail for about $3,900, are reducing the number of cardiac-related deaths each year. The American Heart Association says from 50,000 to 100,000 of the 250,000 cardiac-related deaths each year could be prevented by AEDs, which read and analyze heart rhythms and will not allow a shock to be delivered unless medically indicated.

In 1998, New York state enacted the Public Access Defibrillation law, which seeks to increase the number of locations with defibrillators.

School districts are not required to have the devices on hand, but must have emergency medical plans that should include procedures on handling sudden cardiac arrest in students and adults.

A March field memo from the State Education Department, in conjunction with the State Department of Health, informs districts about the devices and starting programs. Individuals and organizations are protected by public health laws that guarantee those who provide urgent medical treatment will not be liable for damages, unless it is shown they are guilty of gross negligence.

Individuals or organizations who want to be authorized to use an AED must:

• train designated rescuers in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of an AED;

• have physician oversight to ensure quality control;

• integrate with a local emergency medical services system;

• use and maintain AEDs to the manufacturer's specifications; and

• notify their regional emergency medical services council and the state Department of Health.

In the past year, Moyer and her husband, John, have helped get a law passed in their home state of Pennsylvania that provides two free AEDS for each school district. They and PJTA colleague Rick Graham and an assistant principal, Rich Andree, have trained 400 people, most from New York, in the ways to use the device.

Moyer is working toward passage of an AED law in several other states, including New York.

"We want getting an AED for every public school and any place that the public gathers to become a national issue," Moyer said. "Knowing that families can be saved from going through the pain we suffered this past year makes it well worth the effort."

Another goal: Pass a federal bill to give more than $50 million a year to provide AEDs and training around the country.

The Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund is c/o Arthur L. Zulick, 819 Ann St., Stroudsburg, PA 18360.

- Betsy Sandberg

The late Gregory W. Moyer was an honor student who loved soccer, golf, snowboarding and fishing for trout.

His mother gets some solace through her work toward making Automatic External Defibrillators available to schools, libraries and community centers. Rachel Moyer said, "I have been denying the reality of his death by keeping very busy but, as the date gets closer, I won't be able to say, 'This time last year, Greg was playing soccer and going to the homecoming dance and he was alive.'"

Moyer said, "It is just so difficult to believe that a year has gone by."

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