Lutheran EMS conducted an emergency medical training drill with Edgewood Middle School teachers in February. Lutheran plans to conduct the drills at all Warsaw Community Schools’ buildings this year as part of Project A.D.A.M., a program in honor of a Wisconsin student who died during a high school basketball game due to cardiac arrest. Photos provided by Alicia Mediano.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Lutheran EMS Director of Operations Alicia Mediano said doing Project A.D.A.M. emergency drills with Warsaw Community Schools has been “a good collaboration.”

Lutheran EMS completed its first drill via the program with Edgewood Middle School staff last month. Employees who volunteered practiced responding to a medical emergency.

Project A.D.A.M. is a nationwide program, which was created after Wisconsin high school student Adam Lemel died in 1999 from cardiac arrest while playing high school basketball. The letters stand for Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory. Lemel died due to a defibrillator not being used soon enough after his heart problem occurred.

Mediano said WCS had already been working on medical training for its staff when Lutheran EMS approached them about Project A.D.A.M.

Lutheran EMS School Liaison Monica Combs is leading the training.

She met with school nurses at all 11 of the WCS buildings to kick off the training in January, informing the nurses what emergency medical protocols they needed in place. Nurses then organized teams consisting of 10% of their staff for the drills.

Lutheran will conduct remaining drills at the schools in March and April, with school staff knowing of one at each of their buildings ahead of time, with second drills at the buildings being a surprise.

Edgewood Middle School physical education teacher Janelle Rhoades practices CPR on a mannequin during the drill.

Combs said staff are first briefed on their roles at the start of each respective drill.

“We have a mannequin that’s in a specific location, and then they run through a drill as if it were an actual emergency,” she said. “We’ve collaborated with dispatch, and they’re aware of the drills, so they will actually call 911, and the fire department will come out.”

Lutheran EMS also goes to each drill. After each exercise is over, there’s a debriefing on how it went, said Combs.

The drills are one part of the process WCS needs to complete for its buildings to be Project A.D.A.M. Heart Safe Schools. Combs said other parts of the distinction include making sure school staff are “CPR-certified” and getting AEDs “within three minutes of any location in (each) building.”

Regarding the CPR certification, Mediano said Lutheran Health Network “sponsors any teacher, any athletic aide, any of the school roles to become CPR-certified … at any school that we’re associated with, (including Warsaw).” She also said the K21 Health Foundation is helping WCS get more AEDs.

Using AEDs are part of the school drills. Combs deemed AEDs to be user-friendly to those who’ve never utilized them before, but said school staff practicing using them as part of Project A.D.A.M. helps take “the fear out of being the person to grab (them) and (utilize them).”

She said she believed the Edgewood staff are more confident now that they’ve gone through a drill.

“I think they really were able to see that they can do these things and they have the capability to do it,” said Combs.

Mediano and Combs are hoping to expand Project A.D.A.M. to the other schools Lutheran is connected with, including Tippecanoe Valley School Corp., Triton School Corp., Wawasee Community School Corp. and Whitko Community Schools, in coming years.

Schools who are interested in Project A.D.A.M. should contact Lutheran at (574) 269-1975.

Mediano said if people are interested in learning CPR, there’s a class at Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital at 9 a.m. on the third Saturday of every month. The March 15 class is full, but people may sign up for future ones by going to lutheranems.com/learncpr. There’s a $20 charge for the general public, with teachers or first responders able to take the class for free.