PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. -- Oakbrooke Elementary is the first school in the Pulaski County Special School District to become Project ADAM HeartSaver certified. The school partnered with Arkansas Children’s Heart Institute for the training with the Project ADAM coordinator, Charles Wooley.
Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam's Memory) - Arkansas Heart Safe Schools aims to save lives by preventing sudden cardiac death through education and implementation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) programs in schools.
Thank you to the Sherwood Fire Department and MEMS ambulance service for contributing their time and knowledge to the training at Oakbrooke Elementary.
PCSSD school nurses received training to implement the programs in schools in the District and we hope to have more certified as the school year progresses.
Project ADAM began in 1999 after a series of sudden deaths among high school athletes in Wisconsin and Georgia. Many of these deaths appeared to be due to ventricular fibrillation – heart arrest caused by abnormal, sustained electrical stimulation of the heart muscle. Project ADAM began after Adam Lemel, a 17-year-old Whitefish Bay, WI, high school student, collapsed and died while playing basketball. Adam's parents, Patty Lemel-Clanton and Joe Lemel collaborated with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the Herma Heart Center to create this program in Adam's memory.