Norfolk Public Schools (NPS), in collaboration with Children’s Nebraska, announced Monday that Norfolk Senior High School and Norfolk Junior High School have received a Heart Safe designation through Project ADAM, a program that ensures schools have automated defibrillator (AED) equipment, response training and advanced emergency preparedness procedures in the event of a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) on campus.
Children’s Project ADAM program partners with schools and organizations statewide to encourage preparedness for an emergency situation to save lives. Norfolk’s high school and middle school’s commitment is part of a broader Heart Safe Madison County initiative currently underway, which will bring more than 70 AEDs to the county – including 30 to schools in Norfolk’s district – thanks to generous grant funding from the Acklie Charitable Foundation.
“NPS has been fortunate enough to partner with Children’s Nebraska and Project ADAM to update our old AEDs and receive additional ones to support our buildings,” Norfolk Senior High School nurse Blair Brink, R.N., said. “The NPS nurses have become certified CPR instructors to train our staff and be prepared in the case of a cardiac emergency. We are extremely appreciative of their generosity to both NPS and the Norfolk community.”
Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory) was named for Adam Lemel, a 17-year-old Wisconsin teenager who suffered a fatal sudden cardiac arrest in 1999 while playing basketball at school. Access to an AED and immediate care could have saved Adam’s life.
Project ADAM’s Heart Safe School program ensures schools and organizations have well-maintained AEDs available on campus, CPR- and AED-trained staff and a practiced emergency plan to respond to a collapse, giving students, staff and community visitors the best possible chance to survive an unexpected cardiac event.
Children’s, the region’s only hospital dedicated exclusively to serving children and teens, was designated a Project ADAM affiliate hospital in 2022 and has facilitated hundreds of Heart Safe designations for schools and organizations statewide. Matthew Sorensen, M.D., an electrophysiologist and member of Children’s Pediatric Cardiology team, serves as the local medical director for Project ADAM. The initiative marks a strategic investment to align Children’s cardiac experts as an important resource for community schools and is a collaboration between Children’s Criss Heart Center and Community Health & Advocacy teams.
“Project ADAM is a nationwide, collaborative effort to improve the safety of our schools and community and help them achieve preparedness for an unexpected cardiac event, and we are proud to serve as an affiliate hospital of this exceptional program,” Dr. Sorensen said. “Becoming Heart Safe reflects an exemplary commitment to the health and safety of people of all ages across our communities, and Norfolk Public Schools is leading the way in Madison County. Each school and organization is key to these efforts, and we look forward to seeing the continued growth of the Heart Safe program and Project ADAM’s reach across the state.”
According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur in the United States each year, and approximately 10 percent survive.
Since 1999, more than 4,000 schools across the country have achieved a Heart Safe designation.
