By Annette Pinder
Football season is here, and Damar Hamlin is encouraging everyone to be prepared during a cardiac emergency. Hamlin, the national ambassador for the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Nation of Lifesavers™ movement, suffered a cardiac arrest during Monday Night Football on January 2, 2023. His new public service announcement encourages teens and adults to be prepared to save a life during a cardiac emergency.
With nearly three out of four cardiac arrests occurring at home and outside the hospital, knowing CPR is critical to more than 350,000 people each year. While administering CPR immediately can double or triple a person’s chance of survival, less than 50% of people who suffer a cardiac arrest receive CPR before emergency personnel arrive. Fortunately, when Damar Hamlin arrested on the field, everything happened as it should, including recognition, calling 911 with responders immediately on the scene, administering high-quality CPR, and having access to, and using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). “Knowing how to respond in a cardiac emergency when seconds matter is literally the difference between life and death. We need to have everyone ready to call 911 if they see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, and to push hard and fast in the center of the chest until more advanced help arrives,” says Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association.
The AHA is committed to turning a nation of bystanders into lifesavers by ensuring that teens and adults learn about CPR and AEDs, and share that knowledge with others. Since January, the AHA has worked alongside the NFL at Super Bowl LVII, the NFL Draft, and NFL clubs to teach Hands-Only CPR and offer the Heartsaver® CPR AED training course.
Many NFL teams have conducted training for their staff and communities. The Buffalo Bills made a five-year commitment to advance education and awareness, train at community empowerment events, and distribute CPR resources to under-resourced communities. Only 12 days after the AHA hosted a Hands-Only CPR education session with the Los Angeles Rams coaching staff, defensive coordinator Raheem Morris assisted in saving a three-year-old boy.
Creating a Nation of Lifesavers includes the AHA’s efforts to drive policy change at the federal and state levels. The AHA has also endorsed the federal Access to AEDs Act, to create a grant program for K-12 schools to provide CPR and AED training; purchase AEDs; and create cardiac emergency response plans to reduce cardiac deaths in school settings. The AHA is also a founding member of the Smart Heart Sports Coalition, which advocates for states to adopt evidence-based public policies that will prevent fatal outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest among high school students.
Hands-Only CPR is chest compression-only CPR, which can be equally as effective as traditional CPR in the first few minutes of an emergency response. If a teen or adult suddenly collapses, witnesses should immediately call emergency services and begin chest compressions at a rate of 100-120 beats per minute and a compression depth of approximately two inches. October is Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and the AHA encourages everyone to take 90 seconds to learn how to save a life now at www.heart.org/HandsOnlyCPR.
