National Wear Red Day: The importance of learning CPR

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - For this year’s National Wear Red Day, the American Heart Association is stressing the importance of learning how to perform CPR.

“Our big push this year for our heart month is ‘Be the Beat’,” said Ashley Miller, director of the AHA. “So we’re not only asking women to take care of themselves and get their natural rhythm back‚ but we’re also encouraging folks to learn hands-only CPR.”

Miller says that shows out of 350,000 people that have a cardiac arrest episode, three out of four are outside of the hospital and only 40 percent of those receive assistance.

On Saturday, Feb. 25, the Cape Fear Heart Ball will be held at the Country Club at Landfall.

“Alison Long at Motts Channel Seafood is our chair in honor of her husband Gene, that is a survivor of six of a cardiac arrest,” Miller said. “We’re gonna be raising funds that night for life-saving research and programs and awareness, and we want everyone to know that by taking care of yourself and taking steps and learning how to help save a life, that we’re doing a good thing.”

You can learn more about that event here, and more about the Be the Beat campaign and CPR on the American Heart Association website.

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