I survived cardiac arrest at school. As students head back to class, Wisconsin can make sure they get lifesaving help when it matters most

I died at 3:50 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2022.

As students across Wisconsin head back to school this fall, families are packing backpacks, preparing for new classes and settling into familiar routines. Few are thinking about cardiac emergencies. My family knows why they should.

It was an ordinary school day. I do not remember collapsing. I do not remember going into sudden cardiac arrest. I only know what others have told me since.

“You said you felt dizzy an hour before.”

“You were just grabbing an extra cookie.”

“You were fine all day.”

“You were dead for 15 minutes.”

Those 15 minutes are a blank space in my memory, but they are the reason I am alive today. They are also the reason Wisconsin legislators should pass a bill requiring all WI schools to have a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP).

My story with heart disease did not begin in high school. It began the day after my fifth birthday. I remember sitting on an exam table while a new pediatrician listened to my heart just a little longer than usual. My heart rate was slower than it should have been. “Probably nothing,” she said, but she ordered tests anyway.

It was something.

I remember my mom getting an urgent phone call about test results. I remember being rushed to the children’s hospital, strapped into my car seat, asking questions no five-year-old should have to ask: What is happening? Am I okay?

I was diagnosed with three heart conditions. I left the hospital with a pacemaker, medications, and a long list of restrictions. No running. No jungle gyms. No catching balls. No bounce houses. No inline skating in gym class. For an active family that rarely heard “no,” those words landed hard.

When I started kindergarten eight months later, my parents did not just hope for the best. They worked with my school to build a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan. Teachers and staff learned CPR. They practiced using an AED. They ran drills. Every year, anyone who worked with me was trained.

As a new school year begins, thousands of students will walk into classrooms, gyms, cafeterias and auditoriums every day. Parents trust that schools are prepared for emergencies. When it comes to sudden cardiac arrest, every school should be.

Sudden cardiac arrest does not announce itself. It does not always happen on the football field or during gym class. It can look like dizziness. A stumble. Passing out. Without immediate action, it is almost always fatal. With CPR and an AED on hand, survival rates skyrocket.

CERPs would ensure schools have a clear, practiced plan for cardiac emergencies, including AED placement, staff training and coordination with local emergency responders. It does not ask schools to predict who will collapse.

It asks them to be ready when someone does.

This is not hypothetical to me. I am alive today because of the actions of people around me when I had sudden cardiac arrest.

Today, I am studying to become a pediatric nurse. I found calm in hospitals that once terrified me. I ask questions. I want to be the nurse who helps children feel safe when everything feels overwhelming.

Death is supposed to be the end, the period at the end of a sentence, the final fade-out of a song. For me, it was not. But surviving sudden cardiac arrest is not about luck. It is about preparation.

As lawmakers consider this legislation in the next session, Wisconsin has the chance to make survival the rule, not the exception. Passing the CERP bill would mean fewer families relying on miracles and more relying on systems that work. It would mean that when a student collapses, adults do not freeze in fear or confusion. They act.

Our schools are the hearts of our communities. Students fill the hallways. Teachers lead classrooms. Coaches, custodians, grandparents and neighbors gather under one roof. With so many lives intersecting in one place, preparedness is not optional. It is essential.

I do not remember the day I died. But I will always remember how living through it shaped who I am. Survival should not be rare. Legislators in Wisconsin can help make sure it is not.

No child should need a second life to reach their first dream.