Hearts on the Hill Recap

My name is Jordan O’Connell. A few weeks ago, I joined around 50 other advocates to ask our federal lawmakers to help save lives when someone suffers a cardiac arrest in school. I wouldn’t be writing this article if my school hadn’t had an automated external defibrillator (AED) and someone who knew how to use it.

During my freshman year of high school, I was playing JV football and was heading out to the huddle after my teammates forced a turnover. On my way to the huddle, I went down. No one hit me, nothing- I just flopped to the ground. My team’s athletic trainer started CPR and used an (AED) until paramedics arrived. I was dead for four and a half minutes. But between CPR, the AED and paramedics getting me to the hospital, I came back.

Because everything was in place that day- the AED, the athletic trainer, their training- I got a second chance. Only 10% of people who suffer a cardiac arrest survive, but in a school like mine that was prepared and had an AED? 70% of kids survive.

Congress has passed a law to help more kids like me survive, but the program it created still needs to be funded. My mom, Brettney, myself and the other advocates at the event were asking Congress to fund this program so more kids’ lives can be saved. There were advocates from 19 states; some were survivors like me, others had lost a child to cardiac arrest, and there were also doctors, nurses, teachers and other advocates. We had productive meetings with federal lawmakers and will keep working; every kid should have the same chance I’ve had.

You can contact your lawmakers and join me in asking them to fund this important program.