“Sudden cardiac arrest is uncommon, but when it happens, every second matters,” says Sarah Bales, director of health services for Yuma School District One.
Standing before the Yuma School District One governing board at August’s meeting, Bales explained why Castle Dome Middle School became a Heart Safe School through the Project ADAM program.
Project ADAM is a Heart Safe School program. It helps schools strengthen cardiac emergency preparedness through awareness, training and practiced response plans.
Bales explained that preparation can be critical: In the event of a sudden cardiac arrest, the probability of survival decreases by up to 10% for every minute without CPR and defibrillation.
“Because EMS can't always arrive within those first few minutes, the people already on campus become the first responders,” she said. “Those few minutes really matter. One study showed an 80% survival rate if schools supplied the AEDs versus 50% if the victim had to wait for EMS. Our goal through Project ADAM is to make sure that we're ready if that day ever comes.”
According to District One, the school earned the title in May after months of preparation and collaboration. The effort was led by Natalie McPherson, RN, in collaboration with district leadership, school administration and staff, Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Southwest Safety.
Bales detailed that they began by educating all staff so that they could recognize a cardiac emergency. More than 50 staff members also received CPR/automated external defibrillator (AED) training and a Cardiac Emergency Response Team of more than 20 members was established.
Additionally, the school increased its number of available defibrillators from two to five.
Bales said that they conducted several emergency drills, too. The last one — an unannounced drill — was the culmination of their work.
“The response demonstrated that our preparation truly made a difference,” she said. “Within 15 seconds of an emergency being called over the radio, a code AED announcement was made throughout the campus. The first response team members arrived with an AED just one minute later.”
During the drill, CPR began at 1 minute and 40 seconds and the first shock was delivered at 2 minutes and 13 seconds. While the response team cared for the drill victim, the rest of the school did what it was trained to do too.
“Teachers kept students calm, classrooms remained supervised, hallways stayed clear and nearby staff stepped in to cover responding teachers' classrooms,” Bales said.
Before EMS arrived, Castle Dome’s team delivered 12 rounds of CPR and two defibrillation shocks.
“Those are life-saving interventions that would not have occurred without planning, training, and practice,” Bales said. “That preparation turned 6 minutes and 40 seconds of waiting into 6 minutes and 40 seconds of life-saving care.”
According to District One, Castle Dome plans to continue annual CPR and AED training as well as cardiac emergency drills and weekly AED inspections.
The school also plans to support expanding Project ADAM to schools across the district.
“Although we are proud of what Castle Dome has accomplished, this is really just the beginning,” Bales said. “Health Services has already secured new CPR mannequins and AED
trainers using grant funds from last year that will help support continued training throughout the district.
“Our hope is to build on this success by expanding Project ADAM to additional campuses so that every student, every staff member and every visitor has the best possible chance of surviving a cardiac emergency.”
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This reporting is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
