VCU Health joins Project ADAM to help schools become ‘heart safe’

Children's Hospital of Richmond. Photo taken by Alessandro Latour

Katie Farthing, Contributing Writer 

The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU has become the first Project ADAM — Automated Defibrillation in Adam’s Memory — partner in the state, according to the CHoR website

Project ADAM is currently active in 29 states, with affiliations in progress in four states and Washington, D.C., according to their website

Project ADAM was founded in 1999 after the death of 17-year-old Adam Lemel. Lemel suffered from a sudden cardiac arrest and died while playing basketball, according to its website. Lemel’s parents and Children’s Wisconsin Pediatric Hospital combined efforts to honor Lemel. 

Project ADAM has saved over 200 lives throughout the country, according to Dr. John Phillips, the medical director of the CHoR affiliation of Project ADAM. 

CHoR became an official affiliate in November 2022 and is hoping to designate the first “heart-safe” school in Virginia within the next three to six months, according to Phillips. 

“It is very rare for these events to happen, but when they do happen, obviously it’s devastating to the family, but it’s also devastating to the school and to the community,” Phillips said. “So if we can put a little time and effort into being prepared for the events, then that will make a difference.” 

Anywhere from one to 8.3 children out of 100,000 per year are affected by a sudden cardiac arrest. The likelihood of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital in an area with no sudden cardiac arrest awareness plan is only about 10%, according to Phillips. 

“What we’re shooting for is making that number, that percentage of survival, even greater,” Phillips said.  

Anyone can get the program started at their local school, including faculty, students and parents, according to Phillips. 

To be deemed “heart-safe,” schools must meet 14 criteria. This includes ensuring schools have the proper equipment, like automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, proper CPR training and education and that they pass a sudden cardiac arrest drill, according to Phillips. 

The process is fairly easy, according to Kelsey Schaefer, an athletic trainer at Matoaca High School. 

“It just takes a little bit of work, which I think everybody’s capable of doing,” Schaefer said. “I do think that the schools will be very on board with it when they realize the benefits of the program.” 

CHoR has the resources to help schools come up with a plan to be heart safe, according to Lexi Stevens, the program coordinator for Project ADAM at CHoR. 

“There is no barrier that we can’t get past getting towards the 14 requirements,” Stevens said. 

Project ADAM aims to have about five to 10 faculty and staff members that know how to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest code, according to Stevens.

“It can be anybody. It can be somebody who works in the cafeteria. It can be the math teacher, it could be one of the athletic trainers, any group of people, even students that want to be involved in the program,” Stevens said. 

They are working towards every school becoming “heart-safe,” according to Stevens. 

“We’re just trying to make a safer and happier and healthier Virginia,” Stevens said. 

Project ADAM recently released a statement regarding NFL player Damar Hamlin’s sudden cardiac arrest and repeated the desire for every area that youth gather to have cardiac emergency action in place. 

“This approach can, and will, continue to help save lives as was so beautifully demonstrated on the football field in Cincinnati,” according to the press release. 

Those interested in becoming heart safe or learning more about Project ADAM can contact Dr. John Phillips at john.phillips@vcuhealth.org or Lexie Stevens at Alexis.Stevens@vcuhealth.org or visit the Project ADAM website

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