Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and Wooster School Team Up For Heart Safety

Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) worked with Wooster School staff to achieve a Heart Safe School designation keeping students, staff and community members safe during a cardiac event.

“When it comes to cardiac arrest – preparation matters,” said Cheyenne Beach, MD, pediatric cardiologist, YNHCH and medical director of Project ADAM Connecticut. “Schools are where communities gather for events and we are honored to work with the Wooster School team to protect the health of our communities.”

The team at YNHCH trained school staff through annual drills, appropriate placement of and signage for automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and development of emergency response plans. Ongoing annual evaluation and drills will keep their team at a high level of functioning.

Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital is a Project ADAM partner, a community outreach program that prepares schools and communities to respond appropriately during a sudden cardiac arrest, an event in which the heart stops beating normally and needs immediate intervention to avoid sudden death.

“We’re proud of the work that our team here, especially our nurse, Anna Jette, have done to make Wooster a safer place,” said Matt Byrnes, Wooster Head of School “We hope that other schools will follow this example so that together we can save more lives through better preparation and response.”

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) affects more than 350,000 people and approximately 7,000 children in the United States per year. While most SCA deaths occur in adults, SCA is also the leading cause of death in young athletes and can strike children participating in normal school or sports activities. Each minute defibrillation is delayed, the victim’s chances of survival decreases by 10 percent. 

To learn how your school can get involved, email: ProjectADAMCT@ynhh.org

Cheyenne Beach, MD; Nancy Rollinson, PNP; Mike Jumper Wooster School Chief Financial Officer; Marley Asselta, LAT, ATC, Wooster School Athletic Trainer; Anna Jette, RN, Wooster School Nurse, Matt Byrnes, Wooster School Head of School

About Yale New Children’s Hospital

Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) offers Connecticut’s largest and most comprehensive array of pediatric services. With 212 licensed beds, YNHCH includes two neonatal intensive care units, a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit, a pediatric intensive care unit, a 24-hour pediatric emergency room and a pediatric surgery center. YNHCH, with campuses in New Haven and Bridgeport, is part of the nationally recognized Yale New Haven Hospital, a 1,541-bed not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with Yale School of Medicine. The Yale New Haven Hospital campuses and associated ambulatory sites are Magnet-designated by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. In addition to its inpatient units, YNHCH has three Pediatric Specialty Centers in New Haven and others in Norwalk, Greenwich, Trumbull and Old Saybrook to provide specialty care to children closer to their communities. www.ynhch.org