CINCINNATI — Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in student athletes, which is why one national organization is making sure more schools across the nation have AEDs as well as CPR training.

One local high school is getting involved to make sure other schools in the area have access to the life-saving equipment.

What You Need To Know

  • Project ADAM is a National organization with a local affiliate at Cincinnati Children's Hospital that helps high schools be better prepared for a sudden cardiac arrest incident 

  • A Madeira High School entrepreneurship class raised $13,000 for the organization through various fundraisers 

  • The money is going toward AEDs and AED boxes in other schools and community centers 

An AED a piece of equipment no one hopes to use but is life-saving when someone goes into cardiac arrest.

An AED is a life-saving tool for someone going through sudden cardiac arrest. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

Dr. Adam Powell is a cardiologist at Cincinnati Children’s hospital as well as the hospital’s co-medical director of Project ADAM, a national organization that focuses on helping schools be prepared for sudden cardiac arrest, such as AED use.

“The vast majority of time someone has sudden cardiac arrest, they're not athletes, they're not even participating in sports," Powell said. "And so AEDs in schools, they're not just for the students or the teachers, but it's for the community.”

And thanks to the efforts of an entrepreneurship class at Madeira High School, raising $13,000 for Project ADAM through various fundraisers, more schools and community centers will have access to AEDs.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital is the region's affiliate for Project ADAM. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“We were all student athletes here," Emmie Brewer, a senior in the class, said. "And we wanted to do something like impact that and a few of us have like heart conditions as well. So we're thinking, how can we connect heart conditions to athletes? And we started thinking about the Damar Hamlin story playing the Bengals at the Bengals Stadium. And that kind of resonated with a lot of us. So we decided to do AEDs.”

Powell said when he was approached by the class to raise money not for them, but for others, he was floored.

Students gather around Dr. Powell as he explains how an AED works. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“They're actually sharing the this money for people that don't have access to those funds, don't have access to some of these lifesaving things," Powell said. "I mean, they are truly being good stewards of what they have with our neighbors and with our communities.”

For the students, it was a worthwhile cause, something they knew could save a life.

“I think just all of us having the experience of having a school that has them and feeling safe, like our parents feel safe to send us to sports events here, we feel safe going to them," Brewer said. "We wanted to share that with our community.”

Currently, 15 schools in the Cincinnati area are certified as Heart Safe Schools through Project ADAM, with 25 more in process. Click here to learn more about how to become a Heart Safe School and get life-saving equipment.