JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It happened to LeBron James’ 18-year-old son, Bronny. It happened to Damar Hamlin. And each year thousands of athletes, students, and young adults suffer sudden cardiac arrest. According to the American Heart Association more than 436,000 Americans died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2020 and it claims the lives of about 7,000 children each year in the U.S. It can happen without warning.
“This is the leading cause of death of athletes. And it's also the leading cause of death of all ages on school campus,” Shawn Sima said. “We really need to raise awareness that this does happen. One in every 25 United States schools on average is going to have somebody collapse on campus. And what happens in that first three to five minutes, is really going to decide the outcome. There are no second chances.”
For Shawn Sima the fight to prevent these deaths is personal.
“My daughter, a 16-year-old elite athlete, without one medical problem was a one out of 10 who survived sudden death. And it's because she went down in a gym, or somebody just took CPR and where they had an AED available. And they used it on my daughter 10 minutes before the ambulance showed up.”
Sima is now Impact Director for Who We Play For, a non-profit that offers free EKG heart screenings to Florida students between the ages of 10 and 22. Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in July allocating nearly a million dollars to fund 50,000 EKGs through Who We Play For this fiscal year.
“I would implore every parent to make sure your kid gets a heart screening with an EKG. And then please, before you drop them off at practice or school, make sure that there's an AED available, that there's a plan by that school or sports team to know how to use it. And, and just don't take anything for granted. “
He helped get legislation passed that makes CPR a high school graduation requirement in Florida. He's now working to get federal legislation, The Access to AEDs Act, passed. The legislation would allocate $25 million in funding over five years.
“It's Senate Bill 1024 and House Bill 2370, and what it does is it makes money available through Health and Human Services for schools to reach out to our government to get grants to purchase AEDs for their campuses,” Sima said. “We have over 80 sponsors, bipartisan sponsors in Congress. And unfortunately, we only have seven Senate sponsors, and they're all Democrats. We really need our Republican senators to get on board and help us.”
While Bronny James recovers from sudden cardiac arrest, Sima hopes his story sparks action and helps gets AEDs in all schools to save lives.
“It just shows you that this can happen to anybody,” Sima said. “And we all need to be ready. It shouldn't be what state you're in or what area you live in if you're going to be lucky enough to have somebody respond. Every single state and every single school in the United States should have this requirement.”
To register a student for an EKG through Who We Play For click here, scroll down and click "sign up."