Archive - 2010 - Schools Article

LOS ANGELES--Xavier Jones ran across the middle of the basketball court, ready to receive a pass from a La Verne Lutheran High School teammate.

He first stumbled, then stopped, and finally keeled over motionless on the hardwood. His heart had stopped beating.

MINNEAPOLIS--Dale Wakasugi, a high school basketball referee, collapsed with cardiac arrest in the middle of a girls’ high school basketball game between Rosemount and Blaine Friday night. The first time he suffered cardiac arrest during a game was in December 2007. In the first instance, people responded quickly with CPR and an automated external defibrillator (AED) and shocked his heart.

Surgeons then inserted an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) inside his chest to prevent sudden death in the event SCA should occur again. On Friday night, he collapsed in full cardiac arrest and the internal device shocked his heart back into a normal rhythm, saving his life.

Legislation that could save thousands of lives is in jeopardy.

The Josh Miller Hearts Act of 2009 (Josh Miller Helping Everyone Access Responsive Treatment in Schools) amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to award matching grants to local educational agencies to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for use in their schools. It also requires at least five adult employees or volunteers at each school to successfully complete CPR-AED training.

MONDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDay News) --School-based programs that teach CPR and the proper use of automated external defibrillators (AED) boost survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest, new research reveals. A team led by Dr. Stuart Berger, a professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, says that it has found evidence of success in recent efforts to bring cardiac emergency skills to school settings, which are the weekday stomping ground for fully one-fifth of the American population (children and adults). The team focused on two CPR-AED programs: "Project ADAM" in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and "Project SAVE" in Georgia.

NEW YORK -- Erasmus Hall Athletic Director Marshall Tames is "doing well" following triple bypass surgery after suffering sudden cardiac arrest while announcing a high school football game this weekend, according to Dr. Ed Golembe, who treated him at the site. Tames is currently in the open-heart intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center.

"I just spoke with the cardiac surgeon," said Golembe, who is the director of the Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Healing Center at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. "[Tames] is doing quite well for the day after surgery."

The whole life-and-death drama was overheard by those in attendance at Midwood High School Athletic Complex in Brooklyn, as the PA system was left on inadvertently.

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In cardiac emergencies, rescuers performing CPR should do chest compressions first. That's the most important change in new guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, recently announced by the American Heart Association (AHA). Experts from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who helped develop the new recommendations discussed the changes in the life-saving emergency technique at the AHA Scientific Sessions in Chicago on Monday evening, Nov. 15.

Cardiac arrest killed Lamar Abel, a young man from Sunrise who played on the 2008 University of Florida national championship football team, authorities recently concluded.

There was no evidence of foul play when Abel, 21, died unexpectedly in Gainvesville on May 22, police said. But officials had been waiting for a medical examiner's report, which was finished this month and formally determined Abel died of "natural/sudden cardiac arrest," Gainesville Police Cpl. Tscharna Senn said in an e-mail Wednesday to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

UF players have kept paying tribute since Abel's death, including during the Oct. 2 game against Alabama. That's when Gators defensive tackle Jaye Howard wore Abel's number, 62, instead of his usual No. 6.

The 

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation has announced its Fall Video Contest. This year, the SCA Foundation is partnering with the Citizen CPR Foundation to conduct its Fall 2010 Video Contest. Unlike the SCA Foundation’s previous video contests, this one is open to all interested parties, not just students.

Help save lives in schools across America. That’s what the
Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation will do if it receives enough votes to win a
Pepsi Refresh Project grant.

The “Save Lives in Schools Across America” project will
raise awareness in secondary schools and help save lives through:

·     
targeted distribution of the Foundation’s award-winning
educational publication, You Can Save a Life at School™