Your Life is in Their Hands? Do You Trust Them?

Last week’s scare on the NFL football field sparked some questions here at MHS. Can what happened to Damar Hamlin happen here? Do we even have the equipment to save a life? Are the staff trained well enough to respond to those situations properly? Here’s what students, staff, coaches, and administrators have to say.

“Probably once a year we have something that requires some quick medical attention,” Track coach Steve Barrus said.

Senior football players Ben Dredge and Jace Taylor were asked if they felt confident that they would receive good medical care immediately if they ever encountered a serious injury.

“I’d hope so,” Taylor said, “Sometimes I have my suspicions.”

Ben Dredge had a similar response.

“I have a little bit of doubts sometimes,” Dredge said.

A similar question was asked to Coach Barrus regarding his confidence level in the staff helping students in a life or death situation.

“If it’s just me, not really honestly, if the trainers close by I think we have a good chance,” Teacher and Coach Steve Barrus said.

MHS’s trainer Jared Olsen has also recognized some issues regarding CPR and AEDs.

“It’s about a 3 minute time period in which that AED needs to be on that person, so if someone were to go down in the stands, on the field, anywhere that means somebody needs to be grabbing the AED inside and getting it all the way out to the stadium,” Trainer Jared Olsen said. 

MHS has two AEDs (automated external defibrillator) one located in the commons/lunchroom and one more located upstairs. 

“We have the proper equipment, yes, accessible? Not really,” Jared Olsen said.

Although concerns have been raised, there are precautions being taken.

“I’ve worked really hard at writing an emergency action plan for every venue and I’ve worked really hard to try to get all the coaches to meet with me to practice this type of action plan so that in the event that something does happen everyone knows their role there’s no questions it’s just second nature,” Olsen said.

Although you can never fully prepare for something like that, MHS works really hard to make all students safe.

“School safety is our top priority, even above you learning, you have to be safe,” Principal Bradee Klassen said, “If you’re not safe you aren’t gonna learn.”

What happened Monday night to Damar Hamlin was rare but not inevitable. The more we know and the more we prepare the more lives we can save.

“That’s like my nightmare,” Principal Klassen said, “Losing a student.”