Residents of the West Valley are soon to have access to more resources to prevent or mitigate sudden cardiac arrest or a heart attack, thanks to the Kyle J. Taylor Foundation.
The Los Gatos-based foundation donated AEDs that will be installed in two parks in Los Gatos, and has been working with the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District to implement heart screenings for student athletes. The donations are part of the foundation’s broader efforts to help prevent and mitigate sudden cardiac arrest after executive director Jennifer Sarmento’s son, Kyle John Taylor, died at age 18 from the condition.
The AEDs, or automatic external defibrillators, will be placed at Blossom Hill Park and Creekside Sport Park. The donation of the AEDs also comes with SaveStation AED cabinets, which protects the devices from the elements and can remotely notify staff in the event that someone opens a cabinet.
Town staff will perform ongoing maintenance of the devices as needed once they’re installed, according to a staff report.
Sarmento said it’s not common for AEDs to be accessible in outdoor spaces, and the foundation wanted to focus on placing the devices in areas where children often gather.
Councilmember Rob Moore, who was a close friend of Taylor’s, spoke in favor of the donation at the April 2 council meeting.
“It’s really meaningful to honor his legacy by placing these AEDs in our town and potentially be saving the life of someone else like Kyle Taylor,” Moore said.
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District is joining the Campbell Union High School District in being an early adopter of mandatory heart screenings for student athletes. Starting in the 2024-25 academic year, all 1,501 of the district’s student athletes will be required to undergo heart screenings before the beginning of the school year.
The screening goes beyond the physicals that student athletes are usually required to complete, consisting of a study of students’ family history, an EKG test and a check of their blood pressure. The foundation will provide staffing for the screenings, including a doctor who can immediately provide students with their results.
Sarmento said of the roughly 2,700 students screened at the Campbell school district over the past two years, nine students were found to have heart conditions, a number that mirrors national averages. Six students from the Campbell district have died from sudden cardiac arrest in recent years, she added.
Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District nurse Lisa Tripp said the district wants all students to get screened, and as such is encouraging students who can’t afford the $20 cost to reach out to her to see if the district or the foundation can cover it.
“We will make sure that there’s no student turned away,” she added.
After all student athletes are screened in the fall, Tripp said, the district will start to require annual screenings for students in ninth and eleventh grades.
“I don’t want to say it was an easy sell, but when you look at some of these kids and the cause of their cardiac arrest knowing that an EKG could have saved them or identified it prior to their cardiac arrest, I think it just pushed the school district that much quicker when we came in and offered this service to them,” Sarmento said.
