Edmonds mom tries to turn son’s tragic death into lifesaver for entire school district

Raising two healthy and active boys, Melinda and Jerry Truax never thought about sudden cardiac arrest or heart problems, especially where their kids were concerned.

But that all changed suddenly on Sep. 13, 2013, when their 16-year-old son Matthew collapsed while running the track in PE class at Meadowdale High School. The teachers immediately called 911 and began CPR.

Medics arrived several minutes later and tried to revive him with an automated external defibrillator or AED.

Related: Think your kid is healthy? Edmonds family hopes their tragedy helps save others

“We were two minutes from the school they called us and said that Mathew was receiving CPR and we knew he was in trouble. They did everything they could to save him but they couldn’t,” Melinda says.

It was devastating. How could their active, seemingly perfectly healthy teenager suffer cardiac arrest and die? There had been no warning signs prior to that fateful day.

Sadly, the Truax’s learned their sons tragic death is far too common but preventable. Sudden cardiac arrest is the sudden onset of an abnormal and lethal heart rhythm. It’s the leading cause of death in the U.S. afflicting over 300,000 individuals per year. SCA is also the leading cause of sudden death in exercising young athletes. Every three days, a seemingly healthy young person like Matthew suffers a sudden cardiac arrest.

SCA can be effectively treated through prompt recognition, early provision of CPR, and early access to an AED, portable devices that read and analyze the heart rhythm and provide an electric shock to restore the heart to a normal rhythm if necessary.

The school had an AED, but it was in a building far from the field.

“God only knows whether he would have lived. But we do know if we can get to someone suffering sudden cardiac arrest within several minutes with an AED, their chances of survival increase significantly,” Melinda says.

Since learning that, Melinda has dedicated her life to doing all she can to prevent another needless death like Matthew’s from happening.

She’s created the Heart of Edmonds Project, an effort to raise enough money to outfit every school in the Edmonds School District with multiple AEDs.

“Most schools might have one, but many are old and not enough to cover entire area to get help quickly where needed. We want to put AEDs in over 34 locations covering about 20,000 students,” Melinda says.

But buying AEDs for all the schools in the sprawling district that includes Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and Lynnwood isn’t cheap. That’s why Melinda is hosting a gala dinner and auction Feb. 28, 2015, at the Lynnwood Convention Center.

“It’s ambitious, but we need to do this now,” she says. “And it’s not just for kids. When you think about teachers, parents, grandparents that are in our schools, 20 percent of our population on average is in a school everyday. They’re worth protecting. I need people to either buy a ticket or make a donation online. There’s so many ways they can help.”

The program is modeled after The Heart of Seattle Schools program, a similar campaign that led to the installation of AEDs in every school in the Seattle School District.

It was spearheaded by The Nick of Time Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Mill Creek mom Darla Varrenti and her family after her 16-year-old son Nick died from sudden cardiac arrest on Labor Day of 2004. Since then, Darla and her sister, Sue, have worked tirelessly to raise awareness and combat SCA.

Thanks to their efforts, the organization has created a nationwide program of free screenings at high schools to detect potential heart problems that could lead to SCA.

Through those screenings alone, they’ve helped prevent a number of needless deaths. They’ve also promoted and trained countless numbers of people in CPR.

The Nick of Time Foundation was also instrumental in the creation of a bill in the Washington state Legislature to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest. The measure, which passed the Senate Wednesday and is expected to easily win passage in the House and become law, funds the creation of a program to develop an online pamphlet and other educational materials for students, families and coaches about sudden cardiac arrest. Parents and athletes would have to sign a form after reading the pamphlet.

The new law would also require the Washington State School Directors’ Association, in partnership with the Nick of Time Foundation and the University of Washington Center for Sports Cardiology, to develop a program to help coaches identify warning signs of cardiac arrest and develop cardiac arrest prevention strategies.

“No one should have to go through what we did. We may have lost Nick to Sudden Cardiac Arrest, but we vow to make his death count and are committed to keeping others with hidden cardiac problems alive. We cannot afford to lose any more of our bright future,” says Varrenti.

Varrenti and Melinda have become close friends since Matthew’s death. The Nick of Time Foundation reached out to Melinda and her family immediately following his death, and Melinda has become a staunch advocate and volunteer for the organization, joining Varrenti in testifying on behalf of the new legislation in Olympia. They tearfully stood side-by-side when the measure passed.

“We’ve both suffered the worst loss imaginable. But together we’re committed to making sure our boy’s lives continue to make a difference for so many others,” Melinda says.

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