American Heart Association, Lexington Fire highlights the importance of knowing “hands only” CPR
LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- February is National Heart Month and it’s dedicated to raising awareness about cardiovascular health.
It’s been about one month since Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest. He’s since been released from the hospital and continues to recover.
The American Heart Association says he’s just one example of why knowing hands only CPR is so important.
A Buffalo Bills trainer has been credited with performing the life saving skill- moments after Hamlin collapsed. The action was vital in saving his life.
University of Kentucky football player Kenneth Horsey has also experienced cardiovascular problems. While he didn’t need CPR, he knows the importance of monitoring your heart health.
Horsey was eating dinner with his family in 2018 when he started to experience stomach pains. The pain got worse and Horsey started to go in and out of conscienceness. His parents dialed 911 and he was taken to the hospital. After several tests, he was diagnosed with endocarditis.
“What happened was a piece of that growth or infection had traveled down and blocked my kidney function which is why i was experiencing the pain in my side that I was,” says Horsey.
His recovery was slow. He had slowly work up to lift weights and took walks to build up his strength.
“After my surgery, I had the lungs of somebody who never played a sport before. So I had to put in a lot of work to get back to where I am,” says Horsey.
Horsey is now a starter for the University of Kentucky. He also volunteers his time with the American Heart Association.
The association teamed up with the Lexington Fire Department to offer potentially life saving information and CPR training to the public in honor of American Heart Month.
“It’s a basic skill that really anyone in the community can learn in a short amount of time and has the potential to save lives of friends and family,” says Jessica Bowman with the Lexington Fire Department.
The association has a goal of one person in every household across the country knowing how to perform CPR by the end of 2024.
“I think Damar Hamlin’s incident on Monday Night Football just highlights the incredible need that we have in CPR. And i think everyone seeing that made them recognize that it is seconds that you need to respond whenever someone has cardiac arrest,” says Andrea Ooten, the executive director for the American Heart Association of Central and Eastern Kentucky.
A task they say could save many more lives.
“We want to make sure everyone feels equipped to be able to respond in an emergency situation. It takes about ninety seconds to learn hands only CPR,” says Ooten.
Learning CPR only takes two steps: Calling 9-1-1. And then interlocking your hands and pressing hard and fast into the center of the person’s chest.
The American Heart Association has provided funding to the Lexington Fire Department to put those CPR hands only training dummies into 12 of the fire stations. Another 12 are also being planned by another agency. The ultimate goal is to provide free CPR training to anyone in the community.
If you’d like more information on CPR training, check out the American Heart Association here.
The Lexington Fire Department also offers free CPR training to groups. Click here for more information.
