The map of the defibrillators in Plasencia: the schools are good and the urban center is bad

At the IES Valle del Jerte in Plasencia they know well how important a defibrillator is, and perhaps this explains why there is not one but two in the center. On October 25, 2015, a fourth-year high school student fainted in Physical Education class. “I thought it had been a minor dizziness, like others I had seen, but it wasn’t,” Jordi Cacho, one of the teachers, recalled a few weeks later. He ordered that they notify 112, and also alerted other teachers and non-teaching staff, so that they attend to the boy. Five minutes later the health emergency team appeared at the institute, which managed to get the student’s heart to beat again and transferred the young man to the Virgen del Puerto hospital.

The episode caused such an impact in the center that everyone got down to work to try to get a device that, if they had been on hand, would not have put the child’s life at such a risk. It is a defibrillator, a machine that emits electrical impulses that can return the pulse. In Plasencia there are at least 35, although the Extremadura Health Service only has 16 registered. Those that do not appear in its database are because their owners have not completed the registration process, which is simple and can be done through the Internet. .

If a map of Plasencia were taken and each defibrillator was identified with a pushpin, it would be seen that the schools and institutes are well covered and the urban center is poorly covered. TODAY he has telephoned the schools and institutes of the city, and the result, according to the information provided by the centers themselves, is that all of them have at least one except for Madre Matilde and Santísima Trinidad, the only centers that do not have one. Some have two, such as El Pilar, Inés de Suárez, Miralvalle, Ramón y Cajal, La Salle and Valle del Jerte, among others. In San Miguel, however, they have one despite the fact that the classrooms are spread over three buildings.

The only one, at the Collection headquarters

As far as the urban center, the panorama is clearly more deficient. The SES only has one registered: that of the Tax Collection and Management Office (OARGT) of the Provincial Council, at the Talavera gate, which opens from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Outside of those hours, there is no way to access the defibrillator, an easy-to-use device.

Most are automatic or semi-automatic, and it is not essential, although it is advisable to have prior knowledge of their use, since it is the machine that gives the orders to be followed by voice. Normally, the sequence is simple: press the power button, connect a cable, place the sensors according to a drawing on the back and walk away, because the shocks lift the patient off the ground.

These sensors have an expiration date -usually two years from the date of acquisition-, and as explained by some educational centers, although it is the Junta de Extremadura that provides them with a defibrillator, it is then the school or institute itself that must monitor the maintenance, which includes the replacement of those sensors.

The 16 that the SES has registered

According to the Extremadura Health Service, there are 16 of these machines in the city. These are their locations: Virgen del Puerto hospital, one in each of the three health centers in the city, university center, Carrefour shopping center, two in Valle del Jerte IES, another two in La Salle school, one in the San Calixto school, sports pavilion, two in La Salle school, Sepei park (firefighters) and OARGT.

For its part, the City Council reports that there is one in the sports city – this is collected by the SES – and another for the municipal swimming pools (it is in one or the other depending on the time of year). There are also in the headquarters of the Local Police, the headquarters of Social Services, Civil Protection and the Uned. Missing in the town hall itself, the Alkázar Theater or the cultural center Las Claras. Neither is there in the Palace of Congresses, of the Board.

The SES explains that “in an emergency situation, it is 112 that starts the heart attack code and has the location of the defibrillators close to the patient.” According to the current decree on this matter, these devices are mandatory in commercial areas of more than 2,500 square meters, bus and train stations in municipalities with more than thirty thousand inhabitants, headquarters of non-health emergency services such as police or firefighters, sports complexes with a capacity of more than 700 people, educational centers with more than 500 students, public spaces with a capacity of at least a thousand people and work centers with more than 250 employees.