On the morning of September 16, 2015, a science class at a middle school in Levittown, NY, was in session as planned — until a student went into sudden cardiac arrest.
Twelve-year-old Wisdom Lane Middle School student Jessica Lemus received CPR chest compressions, mouth-to-mouth, and three shocks from an AED defibrillator for seven minutes before an ambulance arrived. After spending 34 days in three hospitals, and having open-heart surgery and a defibrillator implanted, Jessica is finally home recovering.
She was born with a heart murmur, and while doctors knew that she’d need surgery eventually, the cardiac arrest came as a complete surprise to her family. “Her doctor kept telling me she was fine and all of the sudden this happened, no one was expecting it,” Jessica’s mother Reina Lemus told LittleThings. “It was a very depressing and traumatic thing to deal with.”
Thanks to Louis’ Law, passed in 2002, “all public schools in New York State must be equipped with AEDs in their buildings and at all sporting events.” According to Wisdom Lane Special Education Teacher Carole Going, doctors and EMTs said that if it weren’t for the quick response and the AED, Jessica wouldn’t be alive today.
“As teachers, we go through all sorts of certifications, and CPR training isn’t one of them,” Going said. “Although every one of the teachers who saved Jessica’s life were CPR-certified, that’s a big piece we’re missing.”
Jessica’s story isn’t unique, and it speaks to a larger issue that’s being addressed in schools across the country. Legislation recently introduced in the state of Wisconsin called for CPR to be a health curriculum requirement after a similar incident in Marathon County this spring. The New York City Board of Regents made CPR training a requirement in all New York high schools official on September 17, coincidentally a day after Jessica’s incident.
“When doctors were telling me that my daughter was passed out for a whole seven minutes, it made me think, ‘Thank God someone knew how to use CPR,’” Reina Lemus said. “I think parents and people who work in schools need to all know how to use CPR, because you never know when something like this could happen.”
Wisconsin's bill has backing by the American Heart Association — they cite that training takes only 30 minutes on average. The AHA also reports that more than 325,000 people go into cardiac arrest each year with a 10 percent survival rate — legislators hope that educating the some 164,000 students who graduate high school every year will make a significant impact on that figure. Only a little more than half of all states are on board, so there's still work to be done.
Today, Jessica has a caretaker and receives visits from teachers who are helping her stay on track for graduation— she’s hoping to be back in school by January, and will be 13 years old on November 25.
“We all have to be strong for her right now, and we’re so thankful for all the support,” Reina Lemus said.
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