Beginning March 20, 2023, the students, visitors and staff of Union Grove High School will have a better chance of surviving a cardiac arrest because they have been recognized as a Heart Safe School.
Union Grove High School has worked with Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory), a program of Children’s Wisconsin and the Herma Heart Institute, to implement a comprehensive plan to prevent sudden cardiac death. The Heart Safe School designation indicates to the public that school staff are trained and prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency. Heart Safe School Designation includes placement of AEDs within a school building, implementation of a cardiac emergency response plan, AED drills and education of school staff on the warning signs and prevention of sudden cardiac death. AEDs are safe and easy to use, making it possible for non-medical personnel to provide rapid defibrillation for victims of all ages.
Project ADAM saves lives by empowering schools and communities to be prepared for a sudden cardiac arrest. Project ADAM programming is implemented in schools across the country and improves the cardiac chain of survival in memory of Adam Lemel, a 17-year-old boy from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, who collapsed and died while playing basketball at school.
According to the American Heart Association, every year there are 326,200 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Of those, only about 10.6 percent survive. On any given day, approximately 20 percent of a community is in its schools, including students, teachers, staff and family members. A focused effort on cardiac arrest preparedness in schools is critical to protecting our children and others in the community.
A sudden cardiac arrest is a condition in which abnormal heart rhythms cause the heart’s electrical impulses to suddenly become chaotic. Defibrillation, which delivers an electric shock to the heart, is the only known treatment to stop this chaotic electrical activity. For every minute defibrillation is delayed, the victim’s chances of survival decreases by 7 to 10 percent.
For more information regarding our Heart Safe School Designation and the CPR-AED program, please contact Trish Commodore, RN BSN, Union Grove High School.
For more information about Project ADAM and how to achieve the Heart Safe School Designation, please contact Jodi Wenzel, Project ADAM Coordinator, jwenzel@chw.org.
Photo caption: Union Grove High School’s cardiac response team, led by school nurse Trish Commodore, holding a banner that displays the Heart Safe School Designation.
Pictured from left to right, members of the UGHS Cardiac Response Team: Craig Sheppard, Emily Paskiewicz, Chris Jones, Anne Sireno, Dave Pettit, Trish Commodore, Ben Roettgen, Jeff Urban, Gretchen Caldwell