Press Release
Contact: Marcus Owens
Urban
Warrior | City taking its time to accept free equipment that saves lives
TO HEAR MAYOR STREET tell the story,
you would think that running a city of 1.4 million people costs a lot of money.
Every time somebody other than the mayor proposes a new
program, Street asks how the city will pay for it.
Every time somebody other than the mayor proposes to
cut local taxes, Street asks what city services should be sacrificed.
And so when a nonprofit group offers to provide city
recreation centers with vital, life-saving equipment for free, you might
assume that Street's staff would grab it with both hands and say "thank
you very much."
You see where I'm going with this, right? Is it that
obvious? Has it become so clear that any idea not born of Street's imagination
is so very unlikely to capture Street's imagination?
Last November, Marcus Owens offered to provide free
automated external defibrillators to city recreation centers and free training
on how to use the machines, which are used to shock a stopped heart back into
action.
Owens offered the AEDs
through the Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation, named
after his nephew, a standout basketball player who collapsed and died from an
undiagnosed heart ailment during a pick-up game at a city recreation center in
May 2005.
Consider this undisputed medical fact: When a heart
stops beating, fast action can be the difference between life and death. That
means starting CPR and using an AED if available. Survival rates fall by 10
percent for every minute of delay in restarting a person's heartbeat.
Speedy treatment saves lives.
Which brings us to the inability of
Street's staff to understand irony or respond to questions asked by Owens.
Barry Scott, Street's director of risk management,
waited three months to respond to the AED offer and then only picked up the
phone in February because I was asking questions about the delay.
Scott cited liability concerns about the machines. He
also admitted the city's response to the offer was lackluster and promised to
schedule meetings to speed along the process.
So much for that.
Scott sent Owens a letter in May, saying the city was
"excited" about the offer and believed "that this effort will
benefit citizens and provide health benefits to the community."
Scott followed up last month with an e-mailed promise
of an update within the week. It then took him a month to tell Owens the city
is still trying to "resolve some of our policies and procedures."
To that, he added this great tidbit: "I know that
it seems like this is taking a very long time."
I understand that this AED program is about more than
just buying the machines, which cost about $2,700, and sticking them in some
recreation center closet.
The city has to consider its liability since its
employees would be responsible for the AEDs
But 11 months is plenty of time to get that done. If
the mayor had called for it, does anyone doubt it would have happened in 11
days?
After Owens and I kicked up a fuss about the delay,
Scott announced on Friday that three recreation centers - including the one
where Rumph was stricken - will have AEDs by Nov. 1 as part of a pilot program.
The pilot program talk came as a surprise to Owens, who
wants to get moving and says he is working on sponsors for other centers. For
more information on how to sponsor an AED, check out his Web site: www.derii.org.
Scott said the frustration Owens has felt about a
program that could one day equip 128 recreation centers is justifiable. He
defends the slow pace, saying the city is building the proper support to run
the AED program.
"We've been working really hard," Scott said.
"I understand and appreciate his frustration."