Reeves Elementary named Heart-Safe School after training with MUSC

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) — On average almost 1,000 people experience sudden cardiac death every day in the U.S., and the cardiology team at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is helping prepare leaders at local schools to respond to these kinds of emergencies.

MUSC has a program called Heart Safe SC, which is an affiliate of Project Adam, a program working in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to help schools improve their response to sudden cardiac arrest.

Right now, all schools in South Carolina have an AED, a device that provides high-tech help during cardiac arrest. But doctors say just the presence of this device is not enough to guarantee a positive outcome.

On Wednesday, leaders with Heart Safe SC visited Reeves Elementary to demonstrate a life-saving drill and what would happen in the event of a cardiac emergency. Staff from MUSC, school nursing staff, and first responders with Dorchester County were all part of the drill. They went through the entire response and used the school’s AED.

Holly Legette, the Registered Nurse at Reeves Elementary School, said she was proud of how her team performed during the drill.

“We have several kids at our school that have heart defects that they were born with and other cardiac abnormalities — we actually had a student during Thanksgiving break who had open heart surgery,” Legette explained. “So this is something that could happen at our school, we could have a sudden cardiac arrest and I want everyone to be aware and be ready and have that AED there as soon as possible.”

The team at Reeves completed their response and took action in just minutes. Tara Lawson, the program coordinator for Heart Safe SC at MUSC Children’s Hospital, said that is a success.

“That’s the goal — drop to shock time in less than three minutes,” she said. “We give the person a 70-percent chance of survival rate, so the better off we prepare, the better off we respond — the better off the victim is going to be in the event that a cardiac emergency happens on campus.”

By completing the course, Reeves Elementary School received its recognition as a Heart-Safe School.

“As someone who has a student at this school and in DD2, it means our students are safer, our faculty is safer — everyone is safer when they are in DD2 schools,” Lawson said.

Heart Safe SC also works with Project Adam to implement public access to AEDs across the state.