Arlington High School has recently become one of 11 schools in the district to obtain the certification of becoming a Project ADAM Heart Safe School.

Project ADAM was created in 1999 following the death of a 17-year-old from Wisconsin from a sudden cardiac arrest. His parents and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Herma Heart Institute created Project ADAM in order to provide schools with the proper help needed in case of a sudden heart difficulty.

“The idea is that we have trained personnel on campus who, if someone on campus goes into a sudden cardiac arrest, can call a code and there are people who are assigned specific responsibilities to get help a portable defibrillator,” Russell Bartholomee, teacher and  member of the Project ADAM team, said. “If somebody has an event we go into action mode. We all get our closest AED from the various places that they are on campus and then we respond within a couple of minutes.”

Following an incident that took place on campus last year, the school decided that action must be taken.

“The real need for it presented itself last year when we had a visitor on campus who had a heart attack, and several people in the orchestra department who were CPR certified happened to be on the spot and got help,” Bartholomee said. “That person survived, but they were really lucky. It’s something that Nurse Heroman really researched. To have that kind of certification for the school hopefully just means that people can feel assured that if something happens because it’s going to be taken care of as best as possible.”

A group of volunteer teachers took part in training as part of a necessary process in order for the school to obtain the certification.

“So we watched example videos of what to do from the moment something happens- how to access a scene, how to access a patient for whether or not they need assistance or need an AED, and then ultimately how to use the defibrillator,” Christine Fougerouse, academic coordinator and member of the Project ADAM team, said. “We would watch videos and then practice, so everyone had to walk through a practice scene one-on-one with an assessor.”

The school obtained the certification after multiple hours of after school meetings and training sessions, becoming one of only a few schools in the district to obtain it.

“We finished our skills checklist in around October, but we just got our [Project ADAM] banner recently,” Sarah Heroman, school nurse, said. “Us and Martin are the only high schools in the district that have it.”

The goal is to be able to provide immediate assistance to anyone on campus and to allow everyone to feel safe in the event of an emergency.

“No one has to worry if they’re ever in situation where a student has a sudden cardiac arrest,” Heroman said. “There is enough staff trained to start CPR right away.”