CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Former Police Chief Lee Donohue and Castle High School baseball coach Brent Taniguchi show an automated external defibrillator, a device that aided them during cardiac arrest.
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HMSA equips 95 isle schools with portable defibrillators
Serendipity had a lot to do with saving their lives when they had heart attacks, Brent Taniguchi and Lee Donohue acknowledge.
Normal heart rhythm was restored after they had cardiac arrest because automated external defibrillators were available by happenstance, said Taniguchi, Castle High School assistant baseball coach, and Donohue, former Honolulu police chief.
The two were present yesterday when the Hawaii Medical Service Association announced it will equip 95 public and independent high schools statewide with defibrillators.
HMSA also will provide training for up to 10 people per school to use the equipment, said Michael Stollar, vice president of corporate communications.
The donation, including the $1,250 devices and training, will total $160,000, with funding coming from health plan reserves, not HMSA dues, he said.
Stollar said the lifesaving defibrillators are being provided to the schools to meet a critical need pointed out by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, which will administer them.
Keith Amemiya, with HHSAA, said it is the second "outstanding program" provided by HMSA in little more than a year.
The first was the HMSA three-year Kaimana Awards & Scholarship program to promote physical activity among Hawaii's youth, he said, noting it will affect more than 33,000 student athletes.
Each high school will receive one defibrillator, and athletes, coaches, families and fans will benefit from them, Amemiya said. "It's a nice Christmas present for the schools, big and small."
The athletic association pointed to Taniguchi's case as an example of the need for defibrillators in high schools.
Taniguchi, 47, was at a state baseball championship on Maui in May when he collapsed with a heart attack.
Maui High School's athletic trainer, Chris Pagdilao, had a defibrillator and took it to the field on a golf cart, Taniguchi said: "If he had it in the office, I might not be here.
"From my understanding, the blood had stopped flowing to my heart. The AED shocked me to get my heart pumping again," said Taniguchi, now back working at Hawaiian Airlines in supply and maintenance and still coaching.
Donohue said 80 defibrillators were available to the Police Department before he retired as chief in 2004.
The police union agreed to allow defibrillators in cars on a voluntary basis, and Boisse Correa, now police chief, was in charge of implementing it, said Donohue.
"Talk about stars being aligned," he said.
He said the department had two operable defibrillators, and Correa, his partner in a "Fit for Life" competition, has one in his car: "If not, I probably wouldn't be here.
"The story is even more astounding," Donohue added. Before his heart attack, he explained, a command officer at a meeting kept rubbing his chest. Correa took the defibrillator from his office and put it in the car to take the officer to the hospital.
The officer had had a muscle spasm and was all right, but Correa left the defibrillator in his car, and "and there it was" when he collapsed a few days later at the Waipahu police academy, Donohue said.
He counted at least 10 lives of police officers and family members saved because of defibrillator-equipped police cars.
Milton Martin, president and state distributor for Philips HeartStart automated external defibrillators, said the device was designed for the layman and guides a person through each step, including how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation if necessary.