Head of NIU sports medicine Phil Voorhis advocates for AED availability

DeKALB – Two years ago, Phil Voorhis was the right guy in the right spot at the right time.

The head of Northern Illinois University’s sports medicine department for almost three decades, he was at Walmart in November 2022 when someone near him had a cardiac episode. Voorhis sprung into action, but was surprised when he found out the retail chain did not have an automated external defibrillator in the store.

“I sent someone in to get the first-aid kit and the AED, thinking they had one, and they did not,” Voorhis said. “Afterward, I followed up with a manager the next day, and he said they’d love to have them but ‘It’s not something corporate does in our stores.’”

That’s when Voorhis, as he put it, started jousting at a very large windmill.

Since helping at that incident, he’s been trying to get the chain to equip its stores with AEDs. When the manager told him they did not have an AED, he said he was surprised.

“My response was that’s one of the dumbest things ever,” Voorhis said. “I mean, they’re giving shots, doing immunizations and have 5,000 to 6,000 people through the door every day. And your clientele is not the healthiest people in the world. So then it was Twitter pictures from people all over the place, ‘Hey this parking garage has one.’ Really, Walmart?”

Voorhis has been with the NIU athletic department as head of its sports medicine department for 29 years and with the school for 34 years.

He pushed NIU to become an early adopter of AEDs, with the devices at several locations across campus before they became mandated by state law.

He estimates the devices are used two to three times a year. He recalls a time in January 2002 when NIU football player Jawan Jackson died during conditioning drills. He also pointed out that about a year later an AED was used to save a student’s life.

“The process worked like it was supposed to. The outcome was not anything anybody wanted,” Voorhis said. “I think a year later they used the same device at the Rec Center and saved a kid. And if you look at the campus as its own community, there’s usually two or three uses per year of these devices.”

Voorhis spoke highly of DeKalb Firefighters Local 1236 AED matching-funds grant program, now in its third year. Funded entirely through the union, the program puts AEDs in local businesses.

David Delille, lieutenant of emergency medical services with the DeKalb Fire Department who trains EMS teams, said they give out five AEDs a year thanks to the program.

“That’s probably one of the best tools out there, I would say, for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival,” Delille said. “We go out and we preach hands-only CPR and we try to teach people to start CPR. But having access to an AED out in the public space is one of the best tools for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival.”

Any business interested in applying for an AED through the program should email Delille at fire.emf@cityofdekalb.com.

Voorhis said interagency cooperation like that is one of the many elements of his job that goes unnoticed.

“It’s not just running onto the field, dragging them off and putting them back together,” Voorhis said. “There’s a lot that goes into it. One of the things I’m proud of is our relationship with our local emergency and health systems.”

Voorhis said he and his staff certify about 100 people a year – and not just coaches – in first-aid techniques. He also works with various DeKalb emergency and health agencies such as the DeKalb County Health Department and the fire department on procedures ranging from emergency preparedness to football game-day operations.

At home football games, he said, there are two designated landing zones for helicopters should the need for an emergency airlift arise.

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when the health department was low on PPE, Voorhis supplied extra equipment on hand at the Convocation Center, a designated state emergency center. During the Fairdale tornado in 2015, the school provided all-terrain vehicles and light towers.

“It takes all that planning so when the crap hits the fan it looks serious,” Voorhis said, “not just people running around.”