Project ADAM: Lawson’s Legacy saving lives at schools

Alex Coleman
·2 min read

HARDEMAN COUNTY, Tenn. — A school defibrilator can mean the difference between life or death for a student.

Just ask Danielle Mott, a school nurse, about the day she got a call last September regarding an unresponsive student in PE class.

“We were called to a gym for an emergency for a particular student. When I got there the student was unresponsive but still had a pulse,” Mott said.

Using an Automated External Defibrilator, or an AED, the school’s newly trained emergency response team jumped into action.

“It just ran like a smooth oiled machine and we had an amazing outcome and the student is doing great today,” Mott said.

Today, all Hardeman County Schools have received a Heart Safe School Certification through “Project ADAM: Lawson’s Legacy at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

Lisa Raines, the supervisor of health services for Hardeman County Schools, says the program is needed.

“We’ve always known if an emergency occurred it might take longer for an ambulance to get there just by geographic location,” Raines said. “We have AED’s in our schools, and drills.”

Two years ago, WREG showed how Collierville High students had drills as part of Project ADAM: Lawson’s Legacy. It’s to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest and provide free training for a cardiac emergency action plan.      

“It’s definitely made a difference. I think we’re more prepared and more confident in our ability to respond to an emergency,” Raines said.

Right now, Le Bonheur says 27 schools are fully certified, which includes four school districts: Hardeman County, Lakeland, Arlington and Germantown.

<(Dr. Kaitlin Ryan 11:31:39) “School districts have reached out to us to keep their students safe,” said Dr. Kaitlin Ryan, co-director of the project. “It’s word of mouth. It’s parents. It’s teachers. It’s members of the community saying, ‘I want my child safe.'”

Rytan said the goal is 100 percent certification. “It’s going to take us a little bit of time to get there, but that’s the goal,” she said.

Lawson’s Legacy is in memory of Lawson Wherry, a healthy and active young man whose heart suddenly stopped working and died.

To further his legacy, his family joined the effort to bring Project Adam to the Mid-South and work with Le Bonheur.

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