Advertisement
"We applaud Congress for taking this landmark action," said David Belkin,Esq., of Bethesda, Maryland, a recent survivor of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation board member. "Thousands of lives will besaved every year as a result."
Advertisement
The Foundation, a member of the SCA Coalition, which advocated for thelegislation, will celebrate National SCA Awareness Month by hosting an awardsreception on October 29th in Pittsburgh to honor the heroes who saved the lifeof national nonprofit leader, Maxwell King.
King is executive director of Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning andChildren's Media at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. He was president ofthe Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh and chairman of the national Council onFoundations when he suffered SCA during a meeting of foundation leaders at theCarnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh on November 1, 2006. King will be nearlytwo in "survivor-years" at the time of his re-birthday celebration.
"About 500 Americans suffer sudden cardiac arrest every day and only 30survive," said Mary Newman, SCA Foundation president. "Fortunately, Mr. Kingwas one of them, thanks to immediate action by bystanders and the foresight ofcommunity champions."
King's heroes include museum security officer Manuel Cienfuegos whonotified EMS; assistant curators Rachel Delphia and Lucy Stewart Hykes andsecurity officer Shelli Geyer who performed CPR; museum president RichardArmstrong and museum board member, Alex C. Speyer, III, who grabbed and usedthe museum's automated external defibrillator (AED), and Donna Panazzi, whospearheaded an initiative to get AEDs into public buildings in downtownPittsburgh.
"My case is a perfect illustration of the impact of early CPR anddefibrillation," said King, who was treated with mild therapeutic hypothermiain the hospital and now has an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)."I'm well aware that as a survivor, I'm in the minority. It's time we changedthat. We ought to have a society where 18 out of 20 people survive."
For more information, visit sca-aware.org.
SOURCE Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation
