On the evening of December 2, 2000, my 15-year-old son, Gregory, fell to the floor, unconscious, in a high school's locker room. He had played 10 minutes of the first half of a varsity basketball game and when he walked off the court he had a smile on his face and looked as healthy as any other athlete.

The high school was located more than 20 miles from the hospital. It took over 20 minutes for the first ambulance to arrive and even longer for a defibrillator to be used on him. Several shocks restored an unstable heart rhythm but by the time he arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later, Greg's heart had stopped. The emergency room staff did all they could, but Gregory was pronounced dead.

This experience has been any parent's worst nightmare. We don't know if Greg's life may have been saved if an AED had been available. We will always wonder if that would have made a difference. The Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund was established in our son's memory, in the hope that no other family will have to face such a tragedy and have to question for the rest of their lives if defibrillation could have made a difference for their loved one.

We discovered that Gregory had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The walls of Greg's heart were enlarged which caused his heart to go into ventricular fibrillation. The only thing that could have saved him was an AED.

Greg had never shown any symptoms of heart problems, dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath or high blood pressure. He had at least three sports physicals a year and a physical from our family doctor. As far as we knew, he was an exceptionally healthy kid. That is the problem with this disease. Ventricular fibrillation may be brought on by physical exertion such as participation in sports and there may be no warning as in Greg's case. It is usually congenital but can occur following a viral infection. The best possibility of diagnosis is with an echocardiogram. It can run in families, so all members should be checked by an electrophysiologist.

The outpouring of love and support has been unbelievable.

It has given us the strength to focus on placing as many AEDs as possible throughout Pennsylvania and train people, through the American Heart Association (AHA), on how to use them. According to AHA, 250,000 people die each year from cardiac arrest but as many as 50,000 lives could be saved with a defibrillator. We worked with our State Representative, Kelly Lewis, to introduce an AED bill that became law and gave two defibrillators to every school district in Pennsylvania. More than 96% of Pennsylvania's public school districts accepted the free AEDs. New York has followed suit. The state mandated that every public school have an AED in their building, have people trained to use them, and that they be present at any school event.

Gregory's short life taught us to be kind and helpful to others and do everything in our power to spare other families the pain ours has suffered. If we can place defibrillators that result in even one person's life being saved, then Gregory's tragic death will not have been in vain. We are working to pass similar legislation in the remaining 48 states. Many states are moving forward but need help to get more information out to the general public. Parents can encourage their legislators to learn more about AEDs and to sponsor or support legislation focusing on their placement in schools and other public places.

Lives have already been saved in Pennsylvania because of the placement of AEDs in schools. Let the challenge begin to get every other state to join Pennsylvania and New York. Don't wait until it happens to you before you learn that an AED in a public location may have saved your loved one's life. We can make a difference.§