Keenan William Childs left his Astronomy class in Science Hall last Thursday and saw a group of people staring at the floor outside Room 100. 

The political science junior said he saw a girl who was shivering and thought she was having a seizure.

“I was holding her head stable until she was speaking again,” he said. “She said she was having symptoms of a heart attack.”

Childs said help arrived 15 to 20 minutes after a witness dialed 911. Childs monitored her heart beat using an Automated External Defibrillator until the paramedics arrived.

According to the police report, the student was transported from Science Hall to Harris Southwest Hospital and discharged later.

A defibrillator is an instrument that is used to give an electric shock to a person in the absence of a heart beat, according to Robert Smith, Environmental Health and Safety Office associate director. Defibrillators do not administer an electric current if there is a pulse.

Initially, the other witnesses had a hard time finding the machine in the building.

“I knew they had AEDs in all main buildings, but not for sure because there were no signs,” Childs said.

Childs said emergency services requested the building’s address but he couldn’t find a sign for that either.

“The 911 needs the exact location of the emergency scene but we didn’t know it,” he said.

Childs said the building addresses should be posted in a visible area.

Smith said the number of defibrillators in each building depends on the amount of activity in the building.

“[The Maverick Activities Center] has two where there might be a possibility of a student needing it,” he said.

Smith said there are 40 defibrillators across campus and 11 in various campus patrol cars. He said the machines are inspected monthly.

Mechanical engineering junior Tunyaluck Emsirisangtong said she comes to Woolf Hall everyday but had never noticed the defibrillator at the front door because she didn’t know what it was.

She said many students might not know how to respond in emergency situations.

“I think we should have a training, at least once a year, so that we know the basics,” she said.