When Kristen Walenga was watching television and saw Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapse in Cincinnati on Monday night, it hit very close to home.
Walenga, a teacher and mom of four, survived sudden cardiac arrest in August 2019. She was at home when she collapsed on her kitchen floor and her oldest son began CPR, having the same immediate response the medical team had with Hamlin on Monday night.
"There couldn’t be a bigger wakeup call that America is watching. What are we going to do about it?” Walenga said.
As a survivor, Walenga has made it her mission to educate others about the importance of CPR and to teach them the basics.
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“I teach quick classes to friends, family, whoever I can get to listen,” Walenga said, purchasing four of her own training mannequins and automated external defibrillators, better known as AED’s.
Illinois has a law, passed in 2014, that requires all high school students to learn CPR and how to use an AED.
Walenga feels it’s a critical lesson, but was surprised when asking friends and family while researching which programs schools were using
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“Some people were finding out, when talking to their own kids, that they weren’t learning it at school,” Walenga said.
“The problem is all the mandated laws are not funded. They are unfunded mandates, but we can help with that,” said Dr. Stuart Berger, division head of cardiology at Lurie Children’s Hospital and the medical director for Project ADAM, which stands for Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory.
Started in 1999 in memory of a Wisconsin teen who died from sudden cardiac arrest while playing basketball, Project ADAM helps schools nationwide come up with an emergency action plan. Lurie Children’s became the Illinois affiliate for Project ADAM in 2019.
“We want to help. We want everybody on the plant to know CPR and how to use an AED,” Dr. Berger said. “For schools that need any phase of the help -- learning CPR, getting an AED in a school – we can help with becoming “Heart Safe,” which implies that you have an emergency action plan.”
Nationwide, there are currently 4,129 “Heart Safe” schools, with more than 200 lives saved nationally.
In Illinois, there are currently only two schools that have the “Heart Safe” designation, with 20 schools enrolled in the program.
That doesn’t mean other schools don’t have emergency plans in place, but Dr. Berger says Project ADAM will review those plans, free of charge, to ensure the school is prepared for a medical emergency like Damar Hamlin’s sudden cardiac arrest.
“You do the drills. You practice and Project Adam is dedicated, amongst many other things, to help with that, so that schools are ready, just like they were ready on the football field in Cincinnati,” Dr. Berger said.
Kristen Walenga knows firsthand that in this life or death situation, a quick response can make all the difference.
“I’m a firm believer that you don’t need to be certified to give someone CPR to save their life,” Walenga said.
Local schools interested in becoming “Heart Safe” can contact Lurie’s Project ADAM team at projectadam@luriechildrens.org.
