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Invitations are being prepared for the kickoff of the Neighborhod Heart Watch in the village of Wynnedale, located in Indianapolis. The Saturday Evening Post Society is inviting families to its Fitness Farm. Participants of all ages will learn the simple chain of survival during a heart emergency. Qualified instructors, including Lt. Greg Harris from the Indianapolis Fire Department, will teach the basics of CPR and the use of user-friendly portable defibrillators.
Neighborhood Heart Watch, initiated by Dr. Douglas Zipes, past president of the American College of Cardiology, has a lofty goal of placing a defibrillator in every neighborhood throughout the United States. The program is similar to initiatives such as the Crime Watch and volunteer firefighter programs already in place. A 911 call would immediately be shunted to the designated Neighborhood Heart Watch home equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED), dramatically increasing the response time and chances of survival. The ambulance in response to the 911 call would be dispatched in the usual manner.
"We need to be able to deliver that defibrillating shock within minutes because the survival decreases by 10 percent per minute," explains Dr. Zipes. Experts believe that greater access to automated external defibrillators through programs like Neighborhood Heart Watch could double the chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest.
The free, two-hour kickoff session will conclude with a healthful meal of vegetarian or nonvegetarian chili, salad, and lemonade. Future meetings in the Fitness Farm Scholarship Hall will provide ongoing training to new volunteers and refresher courses for those needing to update skills. To learn more about the kickoff, contact: Patrick Perry, Medical Update, P.O. Box 2166, Indianapolis, IN 46206 or call 317-634-1100.
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