Push for AEDs at Vancouver schools following student’s death [Video]

VANCOUVER, B.C. –

Following the tragic death of their friend, a group of students is pushing for automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, to be installed in all Vancouver schools.

Tobias Zhang’s best friend died in 2022 after suffering a cardiac arrest during basketball tryouts at Point Grey Secondary.

During a call to 911, the operator asked if there was an AED available.

There wasn’t, and ultimately the boy – who CTV News is not identifying at the request of friends and family – died.

And so the students have been trying to ensure a similar tragedy doesn’t happen again at the school.

They’ve bought two of the devices after raising more than $5,000.

But when they presented one of the AEDs to school staff, they were told it couldn’t be accepted due to school district policy.

“I thought it was a pretty ridiculous response,” Zhang, now in Grade 11, told CTV News during …