The American Heart Association’s new campaign, Heroes Saving Hearts, inspires the Hispanic-Latino community to learn hands-only CPR.
Despite improvement in CPR training, the survival rate for women experiencing cardiac arrest outside of a hospital has not improved significantly, especially for Hispanic women. The American Heart Association is determined to change that fact through a new initiative launching across the country.
As a champion for health equity, the American Heart Association will launch the “Héroes Salvando Corazones/Heroes Saving Hearts” campaign. The campaign will inspire the Hispanic-Latino community to learn the two steps to hands-only CPR to help save lives. Hands-only CPR is CPR without breaths, in two easy steps: 1) Call 911 and 2) push hard and fast in the center of the chest to a beat of 100-120 beats per minute.
Without quick bystander CPR, cardiac arrest is typically fatal. Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time whether they are at home, at work, or in public. In fact, about 70% of cardiac arrests that happen outside of a hospital happen at home with someone you love.
In the United States, Latinas and Black women are further negatively impacted. A 2017 study found that only 39% of women in cardiac arrest received CPR from strangers in public compared with 45% of men, and men’s odds of surviving were 23% higher than women. The fear of accusations of sexual assault or injuring the victim as well as lack of knowledge about their state’s Good Samaritan laws have contributed to Latinas not receiving CPR.
”The Heroes Saving Hearts campaign will address those systemic barriers and will provide these communities with the tools and resources they need to learn and administer hands-only CPR,”said Marina Del Rios, clinical associate professor at the University of Iowa and American Heart Association volunteer expert.
To learn more, visit heart.org/CPRheroes.