An affiliate of Project ADAM

Who we are

The Kansas Project ADAM team is made up of the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita's Medical Practice Association (MPA) and KU Wichita Pediatrics. Our mission is to improve the care provided to our community by spreading awareness for sudden cardiac arrest in Kansas. We partnered with Project ADAM to advance this mission. MPA was established to provide medical education, research and medical care through its members who are full-time faculty at KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

What is Project ADAM?

Project ADAM began in 1999 after the death of Adam Lemel, a 17-year-old high school student from Wisconsin. He collapsed and died while playing basketball. Adam suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), in which ventricular fibrillation occurred. This is a condition in which the ventricles (the bottom chambers of the heart) cannot pump blood into the body, resulting in an arrest. An automated external defibrillator, 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 Center to create this program in Adam's memory. 

Project ADAM (automated defibrillators in Adam's memory) is a national, non-profit organization committed to saving lives through advocacy, education, preparedness and collaboration to prevent sudden cardiac death. The program has expanded to 12 other states. Kansas is the 13th state to be involved. More than 100 lives have been saved through Project ADAM-affiliate programs in which an appropriate and timely response was enacted following a sudden cardiac arrest.

Learn how Project ADAM is part of hospitals across the nation by visiting the Project ADAM national website.

Why Kansas?

CPR can double or triple a person's chance of survival. Unfortunately, this happens less than 10 percent of the time outside of the hospital due to delays in care. For every minute delayed in initiating CPR, there is a 7-10 percent chance of reduction in survival. In 2014, 360,000 people had SCA in a community setting where emergency services responded. Of these, 7,000 were children who were 18 years old or younger. Since 2017, approximately 613 patients suffered a cardiac arrest that EMS responded to in Sedgwick County alone. The economic impact of the loss of life is much larger than we can imagine, but there is something we can do to help reduce this burden on our society.

With recent legislation in Kansas mandating CPR training of all graduating high school students, our aim is to make all schools in Kansas heart safe. The American Heart Association has provided more than $25,000 worth of CPR in Schools training kits to be distributed to the Regional Service Centers that support schools throughout the state.

Kansas Project ADAM goals

Kansas Project ADAM is an affiliate of the national Project ADAM. Our goals are CPR training, and SCA education by ensuring schools and communities are not only equipped but prepared to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest.

Team members will first begin partnering with Wichita schools to teach high school students hands-only CPR with the AHA kits and also provide training to the high school staff who will be teaching the students. Presentations on SCA will be available for school administrators and students. A future goal is to be able to do drills for SCA in conjunction with local EMS and school nurses.

Kansas Project ADAM looks forward to partnering with local resources to broaden its reach for awareness and education of SCA. For more information, please contact us at heartsafeks@kumc.edu.