Could You, Would You Save A Life? This CPR-AED Awareness Week, Vow To Know How

As she prepared for the PurpleStride 5K in Kansas City a few weeks ago, Brooke Worrel took her time attaching the racing number to her shirt. This usually mindless task was a lot tougher with all the tears filling her eyes. One year before, she ran this race with her dad. She finished. He didn’t. Shortly after crossing the finish line, 16-year-old Brooke went back on the course to join Rick at the end of his run. When she reached him, Rick was on the ground, blood pouring from the left side of his face and his right knee. Men on both sides of him were performing CPR. *** Rick Worrel’s grandfather died at age 55. So did his dad. Rick was 55 when he and Brooke ran that 5K on May 14, 2016. But Rick’s heart story dates to the day before Thanksgiving in 2014. To a routine trip to the gym cut short because he couldn’t catch his breath while warming up. He went back the next day and it happened again. Was he really that out of shape? The next day, while helping his father-in-law transplant a tree, he became short of breath yet again. On the drive home, he lamented his poor conditioning to his wife and added that his hands felt funny. She redirected them to a hospital. Doctors determined he was having a heart attack. A cardiac artery was blocked. Rick was taken for a cardiac catheterization and doctors inserted a mesh-like tube called a stent to prop open the troublesome artery. Between his family history of premature death and wanting to be around for his wife, three daught...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news