Survivors raise awareness for heart health on Wear Red Day – NBC Chicago

When Heather Baker suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at work in 2018, she had no history of heart issues.

“I started gasping for air,” she told NBC Chicago.  “My heart had stopped.”

Her story is unlike Amit Sethi’s; the New York resident knew he had heart disease and blockages.

“I mean, I escaped death,” Amit told NBC Chicago, recalling his sudden heart attack just a few months ago.

He was in town to run the Turkey Trot with his family in Evanston.

“I had talked to my cardiologist at home and we had kind of decided that exercise was okay. But, it was really cold, and I wasn’t aware of how dangerous that is for when you’ve got heart disease,” Amit said.

Two miles into the race, he collapsed. Thankfully, bystanders there knew CPR and kept Amit alive until he got to the hospital.

“He had ongoing CPR even until he got to the Evanston Hospital. His heart didn’t come back to a normal rhythm until a few minutes after he arrived,” said Dr. Jonathan Rosenberg, an interventional cardiologist at Endeavor Health who treated Amit.

While Amit and Heather have very different heart health stories, they share something in common; CPR saved their lives.

Heather later learned her sudden cardiac arrest was the result of a medication she’d been taking. That experience prompted her to start teaching CPR through the American Heart Association.

“There are just two easy steps to performing CPR. You call 911, and you push hard and fast in the center of the chest. And you’re going to do that until EMS arrives,” she said.

Heather has trained more than 5,000 people so far. She’s also pushed the American Heart Association to increase school preparedness in the event of a cardiac emergency.

“We just passed a law in Illinois this summer that now requires cardiac emergency response plans in schools,” she said.

“As community members, we have a moral obligation to be ready to show up for one another and save each other’s lives when that time comes,” Heather told NBC 5.

“Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. And people often underestimate their risk,” said Cardiologist Dr. Sarah Alexander, who also works for Endeavor Health.

In addition to family history and genetics, risk factors of heart disease can include a poor diet and exercise, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, or smoking. And specifically for women, hormonal changes like pregnancy and menopause can increase your risks.

And while heart disease can affect everyone, on Friday in Glenview, around 80 medical professionals from Endeavor held a heart health symposium geared especially toward treating women.

Endeavor is hosting a Bystander CPR/AED Community Training Event at Skokie Hospital at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15. Amit will be in town for that event.

The American Heart Association has found Bystander CPR up to 10 minutes after cardiac arrest may protect brain function. Find more details here.