Collierville Elementary School became the second school in Collierville Schools to earn the Project ADAM Safe Heart School Designation. Doctors and representatives from LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis visited CES to tour the AED locations in the building, as well as evaluate an AED drill conducted by the CES AED Team.
Project ADAM began in 1999 after the death of Adam Lemel, a 17-year-old Whitefish Bay, Wis., high school student who collapsed and died while playing basketball. Adam suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), in which ventricular fibrillation occurred, a condition in which the ventricles cannot pump blood into the body. Defibrillation, or an AED, could have saved his life. Adam's parents, Patty Lemel-Clanton and Joe Lemel, collaborated with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin’s Herma Heart Institute to create this program in Adam's memory.
CES is equipped with a total of three AEDs, two inside the building and one at the football field. School nurses and administrators prioritize placement of emergency response teams in strategic locations on campus in order to provide quick response times. AED drills are conducted each year to ensure preparedness in case of a cardiac emergency.
All of Collierville’s brick and mortar schools have at least one AED on campus, with most having two. American Heart Association CPR/AED training is conducted periodically through the year, and there is an internal training program consisting of 10 school nurses who are CPR/BLS Instructors through the American Heart Association.