KCTV 5: Private youth sports facilities face no cardiac safety requirements across Kansas City metro
By Lauren Magarino & Sarah Motter
As thousands of families return to recreation clubs and athletic fields across the Kansas City area, their children may be playing in facilities that lack basic cardiac emergency protections.
Schools in both Missouri and Kansas are required by law to be designated “heart safe,” meaning they must maintain a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan and have automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, on site.
Private sporting facilities where many children spend time outside of school hours, however, face zero state or local requirements to have emergency plans or life-saving equipment in place.
Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Lindsey Malloy-Walton said every minute of delay reduces a patient’s chances of survival.
“Every minute you delay a shock is a decrease in your survival rate, and minutes matter, right?” Malloy-Walton said. “And essentially you’re not alive, so we need CPR and an AED quickly to restore blood flow to all the vital organs in your body to ensure that you can survive an event like this.”
The Ward Family Heart Center at Children's Mercy
Project ADAM, Become a Heart Safe School