This February we continue to focus
on heart health and heart Month
and we're highlighting heart health
right here on great day live with
the American Heart Association.
We're focusing on hands only CPR.
You may have heard that talked
about a lot here this month and
the importance of what you need to
know to perform a Life Saving act.
Joining us today with more on what
you need to know is volunteer DJ
Kelly and U of L health cardiologist
Doctor Kim Williams.
Thank you all so much for being here
this morning, such an important topic,
you know, you as a volunteer you know.
This is easy to learn and so
easy to save a life.
Absolutely right. Yeah. Hands on.
CPR is a CPR without mouth to mouth
contact. So the best way to do
it is for many people that was
kind of like intimidating.
You think, oh, what do I have to do?
And I love like the messaging
now it's that it's tans only
folks you can do it. Absolutely.
And there's no certification,
right. So it makes it a
little bit easier for the
layperson to go and perform CPR.
The best way to.
Do it is fast and hard. Hmm.
CPR in the center of the chest compressions,
100 to 120 compressions per minute.
And that takes the blood flow and
that takes the blood flow to the brain
when the heart has stopped beating.
Right. And Doctor Kim Williams,
I mean you're with FL health, you know,
first hand seeing people all the time.
Especially for me what really
interested me this month too.
It's just hearing about the
number of women that are.
Such high risk for heart disease for strokes,
you know what are you seeing and and
and what warning signs do you think
that folks need to be aware of to
say you need to get into the doctor?
We need to start,
we need to start talking about this.
Well
this conversation also always
begins with the fact that heart
disease has been a leading
killer of Americans since 1918.
It took off a year in the Spanish flu.
It didn't take off a year during COVID.
Still number one.
And one of the first manifestations of
of heart disease can be sudden cardiac death.
There's so many times that
that happens for a year
that's that's frightening.
You don't know what's going on.
And then this is the first sign you get.
Now there's this is underpinned
by lifestyle. Always life.
If I could get everyone to understand
the importance of diet and exercise,
healthy diet and constant exercise
we could prevent a lot of it.
But with our lifestyles where they are,
we have to be able to provide the
therapy to get people to survive these
events and they're very survivable
if we do the CPR and if everybody's.
Is known now you mentioned the
there's heart disease in women.
Hmm. It would be great if we had
women Akins instead of mannequins.
OK yeah.
Because thank you Doctor Williamson
actually get everyone to realize
that women have more heart disease
than we've always thought they did.
This also happens to be Black
History Month and we have some
healthcare disparities that are out.
There are African American population
that's about a 21% higher cardiovascular
mortality rate than the other populations.
But it really goes not just racist,
it's poverty.
As well, yeah.
And So what we really need to understand
is that every household really ought
to know CPR and if you can do it,
actually have an AED.
So this will actually guide
you through if you're,
if you turn it on and and listen to it,
call for help.
It can actually guide you through
bringing someone back and so this is
an opportunity for everyone to learn
about it and then to be able to do
something when something goes down.
The last thing I should mention
is about children.
There was a report a couple years
ago that said that African American
children get less CPR than any
other portion of our society.
This is something that we could actually
do something about if we all learn CPR.
So thank you,
DJ,
thank you so much. Thank you.
Your volunteer work for you work for that.
You're volunteering your time here today,
right? Absolutely right.
What would you say to folks that
are thinking about, you know,
I think we can all do a little bit.
I think we can all do our part to volunteer,
to spread the word.
You're in this field.
What would you say to people to get involved,
to bring awareness,
to learn CPR and be an example to others?
Don't be afraid
to get involved and to help someone out.
It's very easy to be able to to
see someone collapse. You act fast.
You assess the scene to make sure it's.
If you call 911 or get
someone to call 911 for you.
Get out there, educate yourself,
and anyone can do CPR,
from young children to adults to save a life.
Now you all have a the Valentine's
event that's coming up that
we saw there on the screen.
We want to get the word out about that.
Thank you both so much for stopping by today.
So important, you know,
to learn more about the American
Heart Association and all the work
that they're doing to keep you heart
healthy or to learn hands only CPR.
You see the information there on your screen?
Do check them out. Get red.
Measured for that event,
I head on over to that event as well.
It's free. It's free to the community.
No excuses there.
Just go to heart.org.