Bettendorf elementary school receives Project ADAM designation

BETTENDORF, Iowa (KWQC) - Neil Armstrong Elementary is one of five Bettendorf schools that have received a Project ADAM Heart Safe School designation.

Project ADAM helps schools nationwide implement programs to prepare in the event of a cardiac emergency.

Project ADAM: Iowa Heartland became official in 2022 with the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

“It’s just one more step in us keeping our kids as healthy and safe as we can,” Neil Armstrong Elementary School Nurse, Meredith Ortega said.

According to Iowa Health Cares website, about 7,000 children and adolescents suffer sudden cardiac arrest every year.

“My top priority school safety,” Neil Armstrong Elementary School Principal, Kevin Turner said. “I do, you know, prioritize academics as well, but I always have to put safety first. This is this another layer of that safety.”

Project ADAM ensure schools have automated external defibrillator’s or AED’S readily available.

“Our focus is to try and improve sudden cardiac arrest awareness and to try and equip the community with strategies in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest,” University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital Pediatric Cardiologist, Gary Beasley said. “Our main way that we do that is we go into the schools, we ensure that they have enough AEDs enough trained staff that know CPR, and then we run drills with them so that they know how to put their plan into action should a patient or a child go down.”

Beasley says at any given point of the day, 20% of the U.S. population is inside a school.

“It may be a child, it may be a parent, it may be a staff member who has an event and needs resuscitation,” Beasley said. “We talk about doing fire drills in schools, the likelihood of a fire occurring on a school campus is the exact same as the likelihood of a sudden cardiac arrest.”

Neil Armstrong Elementary is the 16th school in the state and the fifth in Bettendorf to receive this designation.

“It’s not a hard process,” Project ADAM: Iowa Heartland Program Coordinator, Brenda Haag said. “I think these school nurses do a really great job and a lot of it they already have in place. It’s just putting the final pieces together. So we’re here to help them navigate that journey and just have them be successful in getting this.”

Haag says that the goal is to get Project ADAM across the entire state of Iowa.

Other local schools to receive Project ADAM designations include Camanche and Central DeWitt.

Bettendorf schools who have Project ADAM designations include:

• Grant Wood Elementary
• Paul Norton Elementary
• Bettendorf High School
• Edison Academy
• Neil Armstrong Elementary

If you are interest in learning more about Project ADAM or how to get your school/community center “heart safe” call 319-356-4995 or email UI-Project-ADAM@uiiowa.edu.

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