Inspired by R.B. women’s advocacy, Governor signs heart safe legislation
December 14, 2023 at 1:06 a.m.
Alice Schoen and Dana Colasante bonded over being two of the lucky ones.
In December 2017, Schoen’s son Jordan collapsed on the basketball court at Pelham High School, jarring the Rye Brook community as a Blind Brook High School senior Trojan who seemed in perfectly good health before. And in the aftermath, as Schoen coped with the scare, Colasante was one of the few who could empathize with her experience—she, too, had a loved one who brushed hands with death when her husband fell to the ground while coaching a youth soccer practice in 2013 on the King Street Field.
Both men had suffered from sudden cardiac arrest, and both share a common grace in their stories—they survived, only because bystanders in the vicinity acted fast under pressure and knew what to do.
Schoen and Colasante’s bonding became mission oriented. They teamed up, did research, and devoted themselves to what would become powerhouse careers in advocacy—raising awareness to prevent sudden cardiac arrest deaths in the future.
Collectively, they get a little emotional when thinking about how far they’ve come.
“What launched us to this space was, having had our own personal experiences and doing our research, we realized there’s requirements in the schools, which can be improved on, but not really any for recreation programs and private programs outside of the school system,” Colasante reflected. She referred to protocols in place in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest situation, such as access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and having CPR trained adults on site.
Initially, their work resulted in Rye Brook becoming a pioneering municipality, looking at preparedness on a governmental level in a way that no groundwork had been laid before. Working with the Village administration, they established a committee and officiated a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, which ensured sports coaches are trained for emergencies and AEDs are visible and accessible in public facilities.
But their push in the last few years has become more expansive—reaching beyond the bounds of Rye Town and protecting lives around the state.
In November, during Thanksgiving week, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation proposed by Assemblyman Steve Otis and State Senator Shelley Mayer that mandates camps and youth sports programs to establish AED sites, implementation plans in case of emergency and training protocols for officials at games and practices.
It was a bill the local representatives crafted with the help and urging of Schoen and Colasante, who had been meeting with them often to push the measure for the last four years.
“We went into this space with a lot of assumptions, and one of the assumptions we had is that camps have AEDs on site,” Schoen said. “What we learned is that there was definitely existing legislation that camps need to have a certain number of counselors trained in CPR, so the idea of thinking about sudden cardiac arrest was there, but the legislation did not include having an AED.
“It was one of our ‘ah-ha’ moments,” she continued. “Something we thought was a very tangible piece that we could talk to our legislators about.”
Sudden cardiac arrest affects one in 1,000 people annually, according to the Mayo Clinic, and is considered the leading cause of death for young athletes, with one in 50,000-80,000 succumbing every year from an attack.
“What’s really important is not only having the AEDs, but having staff trained in AEDs and CPR and doing practice drills periodically, so people are really remembering and prepared to act immediately,” Colasante said. “As we know, with sudden cardiac arrest, minutes and seconds count. The rule of thumb from the American Heart Association is you need to get AED pads on a victim within three minutes to be effective, and unfortunately, EMS can’t get to a victim that quickly. We’re relying on bystanders.”
Though the Rye Brook women have been pushing for new state legislation for years, a new inspiration for quick movement was spurred in January after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin brought widespread publicity to the matter—collapsing from sudden cardiac arrest during a game on live television.
“The Damar Hamlin incident definitely has brought over a wave of awareness. Thank God he’s alive, but that was a gift for our efforts,” Colasante said.
And their efforts, as she referred to them, have been expansive. They founded a local organization called Saving Active Hearts, which advocates for heart safe measures in community organizations, and took positions on the American Heart Association Advocacy Committee. But a large part of the umph behind their efforts is through their role with Project ADAM—an organization that works out of hospitals which they brought to New York as founders of the first branch in the state.
“Project ADAM New York is part of a network of affiliate hospitals throughout the United States, we have around 40 in the network now,” Schoen said. “It’s just this amazing network of hospitals and doctors and coordinators that are very passionate about this and do incredible work in their communities.”
The Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is the institution they work with, teaming up with pediatric cardiologist Dr. Christa Miliaresis as the program’s medical director. Largely, Project ADAM has been focused on working with schools on a program to get districts certified with “Heart Safe School” designations.
Schoen and Colasante facilitate the process by meeting administrators with checklists that help them evaluate their protocols, develop detailed emergency response plans and ensure practice drills and training are regular. Two districts have received the certification thus far, and they’re talking to around a dozen more in Westchester. They’ve started the conversation with the Blind Brook School District and would like to begin a similar relationship with Port Chester Schools soon.
When they started their work with Project ADAM, the organization’s mission was school-oriented. But Schoen and Colasante, driven by their experience with the Village of Rye Brook in improving the safety of sports programs and community sites, were able to add that expertise, which is now part of the program.
“We were able to bring that cardiac emergency response plan perspective regarding sports programs and community sites to Project ADAM, and now they use that as one of their tools which was used to help develop other heart-safe programs,” Colasante said. “It’s one of the tools we’re most proud of.”
“It really provides a great starting point, whether it be for a school or a sports program or a community site,” Schoen added. “We’ve found it to be so beneficial for the community at large.”
The Project ADAM chapter became actively involved in community work in 2021 and has grown significantly since, particularly in the last year. Not only are there more school districts expressing interest in their work, but their available resources have bolstered, Colasante said—a new program with residents enrolled in the New York Medical College, for example, is getting students involved with professional development training for K-12 teachers.
The new state legislation is a step to celebrate, the women agreed, but it’s just the first policy measure they’re looking to bring to fruition. With the American Heart Association Advocacy Committee, they’re currently working to develop legislation that would require all schools to have a comprehensive sudden cardiac arrest emergency response plan in place.
“And that’s also where Project ADAM comes in, because we help schools develop those plans,” Colasante said. “It’s great to have AEDs and a certain amount of people trained in CPR, but that’s not necessarily enough to save a life. So having a written out, comprehensive response plan, with cardiac emergency response teams that practice that plan and do drills, is critical. It’s like a fire drill. You don’t hear about people dying in fires at schools anymore because they have drills and plans, and it’s the same concept.”
Their ambitions represent sentiments that they believe everyone would get behind. After all, as is seen time and time again, the more prepared a community is, the more lives that may ultimately be saved.
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