Wake Forest Baptist Medical presents two Forsyth County schools with an AED Friday to raise awareness about heart health and remind people February is heart month.
The hospital’s Heart and Vascular Center donated a defibrillator to West Forsyth and Reagan High Schools before the men’s basketball game. During the presentation at West Forsyth gym, there was also a CPR lesson to teach people signs of cardiac arrest.
“What we know is if we can educate the public for early recognition, to call 911 and to perform compression, only CPR we can double or even triple the chance of survival,” director of Race Cars Project at Duke Clinical Research Institute, Lisa Monk said.
Health workers said they not only want to teach students, but teach their parents how to help someone suffering from cardiac arrest.
“So four out of five cardiac arrests are in the home and so it’s most likely you’ll perform CPR on someone you love,” Monk said.
If an AED is available, Monk said to use it as well.
“The importance of an AED is when people collapse. Many times it’s a heart rhythm that they can use the defibrillator to put it back into a normal rhythm,” she said.
It’s a lesson to show students and parents they don’t need to attend classes to administer compression, only CPR, and help save a life.
All Winston-Salem Forsyth County high schools have AEDs. This donation makes it the fifth defibrillator at West Forsyth.
