The Palm Beach County School District has teamed up with a health organization to help train and prepare educators for sudden cardiac arrest emergencies or SCA. It’s an action plan that could help save lives.
While adults are at higher risk, youth athletes are also vulnerable to SCA.
The school district, with Nicklaus Children’s Heart Institute, is training staff on best practices for CPR — and how to use automated external defibrillators, or AEDs.
The partnership is called Project ADMA South Florida. ADAM stands for Automated Defibrillators in Adam's Memory. The national initiative launched in 1999 after a Wisconsin student athlete died of SCA.
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It's a direct example of how "kids are not excluded from this," said Nurse Practitioner Melissa Olen, who is one of the clinicians leading the initiative locally.
"And those minutes that somebody goes down are the most critical moments to be able to save a life. If you wait until EMS arrives at minute eight, minute ten, it's too late."
SCA is the leading cause of death in athletes during training. A study of over 2,000 high schools found an 85% survival rate for SCA incidents in schools with proper training.
"Anytime that we can be preventive and help kids before they get sick, great, but the sudden cardiac events, they're tragic," said Matthew Love, President and CEO of Nicklaus Children’s Health System.
"And so we know that nationally. And so it makes perfect good sense to do it right here in our backyard."
Palm Beach County School district officials aim to have every public school trained by the end of this year.
