5 precious minutes: Bluffton child's drowning fuels drive to purchase heart devices for police officers
Like most 8-year-old boys, Gavin Quance enjoyed the outdoors, making new friends and causing a general commotion.
"He was just amazing," said his father, Jim Quance. "He raised butterflies from cocoons and gave them to other children to do the same. He was an all-around kid."
So when Gavin went outside for a swim in the family's pool in Bluffton July 14, 2014, his parents thought nothing of it. Gavin, an avid swimmer, was just being Gavin.
Sometime later that day, the unconscious boy was pulled from the pool by his mother, Amanda Quance.
She called 911 and immediately began CPR on her son.
Lt. Joe Babkiewicz of the Bluffton Police Department and two other officers arrived quickly to continue CPR. The ambulance arrived five minutes later.
Despite everyone's best efforts, Gavin could not be revived. He was pronounced dead at Coastal Carolina Hospital.
"Those five minutes could have saved Gavin's life," Babkiewicz said. "Although the paramedics respond to all our medical emergencies, we often get to the scene a lot sooner as we are already in the locality."
A devastated Quance family was approached by the Arrhythmia Alliance, a group who's goal is effective diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias. The group asked to use Gavin's story as a way to raise $41,000 to provide AEDs for each of the department's 50 officers.
While each officer is trained in CPR, they don't have AEDs -- used to restart a stopped heart -- in their patrol cars, said Maj. Joseph Manning.
"An AED in every police vehicle means we could start defibrillation minutes earlier, and potentially save more lives," Babkiewicz said.
According to the alliance, CPR alone can increase the chance of survival by nine percent.
When combined with an AED, survival rates can reach more than 50 percent.
While response times vary, officers often arrive on the scene quickly and the AEDs would give them another tool to use until emergency services arrive, Manning said.
Jim Quance said the AED campaign has been in the works for months, and is now focused on raising awareness of the vital minutes it takes for ambulances to arrive.
"As a parent, it's every morning you wake up, and that's the first thing you think of," he said of his son's death. "Those moments it comes and hits you. It's like a piece of you is missing."
HOW TO HELP
To donate to the AED campaign, may contact the Arrhythmia Alliance Gavin Quance (843) 415-1886 or mail contributions to P.O. Box 5507, Hilton Head, SC 29938.
Follow Caitlin Turner on Twitter at twitter.com/Cait_E_Turner.
This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "5 precious minutes: Bluffton child's drowning fuels drive to purchase heart devices for police officers."