COON RAPIDS and FRIDLEY, Minn. – (April 25, 2008) – A local program to increase survival from sudden cardiac arrest will receive more than $250,000 from Mercy & Unity Hospitals Foundation. That’s the net amount the Foundation raised for Take Heart Anoka County at the seventh annual Crystal Ball on April 5 at the Courtyards of Andover.

Many of the 650 people who attended the Crystal Ball dressed in animal prints to reflect the event’s theme “Out of the Wild.” Guests enjoyed entertainment by Elizabeth Keeney, a complimentary martini bar, and silent and live auctions. A not-so-wild Yorkshire terrier garnered $7,000 in the live auction.

Mercy and Unity physicians generated more than $8,000 from their Wall of Wine auction. Super Bowl tickets, an Alaskan cruise, gourmet dinners, a vintage airplane ride and other excursions were also auctioned.

The Foundation honored Thomas McKee, a community leader and friend of the hospitals who died in December of last year. His family accepted the first Thomas E. McKee Community Builder Award in his honor. The new award will be presented in the future to recognize individuals or businesses that exemplify Tom’s values and contributions to the health and well-being of the community.

Timco Construction and Metropolitan Cardiology Consultants were this year’s Crystal Ball title and presenting sponsors. The event was also supported by more than 50 other sponsors, including Emergency Physicians Professional Association, Connexus Energy and Suburban Radiologic Consultants.

One special guest at the Crystal Ball was Lindsey Paradise. Paradise is a Fridley High School student who used CPR and an automatic external defibrillator to resuscitate a referee during a basketball game at the school. The man had suffered sudden cardiac arrest, but was successfully treated at Mercy Hospital and back on the court this season.

“The goal of Take Heart Anoka County is to make Lindsey’s story everyone’s story,” says Foundation executive director Julie Nelson Gotham. “Anoka County has been chosen to be one of for national demonstration sites for this new program that aims to increase the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest from its current level of 5 percent to 33 percent.

“By training more than 10 percent of the adult population in CPR, placing AEDs throughout the community, training first responders, and ensuring that our hospitals have the best post-resuscitation equipment available, we can save dozens of lives every year. The Mercy & Unity Hospitals Foundation has committed to raise $500,000 in 2008 to make that happen.”

Gotham says people and organizations who want to be a part of the life-saving effort should call the Foundation at 763-236-8199 or visit www.takeheartanoka.org.

Mercy and Unity hospitals, located in Coon Rapids and Fridley are non-profit hospitals that serve the northwestern Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The hospitals respond to a wide range of health needs with specialty services including cancer care, heart and vascular services, mental health services, orthopedics, neurosciences, and women’s and children’s services.

# # #

Email - takeheartanoka@allina.com

Phone - 651-228-8470

Mail- Take Heart Anoka
c/o Allina Hospitals & Clinics
Attn: Susan Nygaard
P.O. Box 43, MR 10103
Minneapolis, MN 55440-0043

_______________________________

Charles Lick, MD

Take Heart Anoka County Lead Physician

Charles.lick@allina.com

_______________________________

Susan Nygaard
Take Heart Anoka Co. Site Manager
612-262-4946
susan.nygaard@allina.com

________________________________

Kim Bemenderfer
Heart Safe Communities Coordinator
651-228-8470
kim.bemenderfer@allina.com

__________________________________

Richard Collins
Quality Improvement Specialist
651-228-8417
richard.collins@allina.com

Coming Soon - More information about the recently announced Medtronic Foundation CPR Training Grant received by the Del Valle ISD

louis.gonzales2@ci.austin.tx.us

512-978-0011 office

512-978-0019

etc…

On Tuesday April 15th the Take Heart St. Cloud Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survival Initiative (THSC) taught CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) and AED (automated external defibrillator) skills to a group of approximately 30 St. Francis Xavier members and community residents. The session was hosted by St. Francis Xavier of Sartell and the session was held in the St. Francis Gathering Place. Each participant paid a nominal fee of $10.00 and received an American Heart Association Family and Friends CPR Training Kit. The kit contains an inflatable manikin, a training DVD and a training booklet. Each participant was asked, upon completion of their training, to train three members of their families and friends.

This is the third Take Heart St. Cloud CPR session hosted by the St. Francis Xavier Parish. The sessions were taught by Take Heart St. Cloud instructors Jo Deter, Kelijo Fernholz and Renee Illies. Instructor, Jo Deter, stated that “Learning CPR is the most unselfish thing one can do; it isn’t something you will ever do on yourself.” Also in attendance were Bob Kempenich and Michael Hengel; both are Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survivors and members of the THSC SCA Survivor’s Network. Bob experienced Sudden Cardiac Arrest in December of 2005 and was given CPR by two strangers who happened to be near him when he collapsed. He commented “I’m here today because people like you took the time to learn CPR.”

Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the #1 killer of men and women in this country. Approximately 1000 people die everyday; over 350,000 people die each year. Approximately 80% of these deaths happen in people’s homes; only 15% of these people receive immediate CPR from family or friends. The intention of the Take Heart St. Cloud project is to train the general public to recognize when to use CPR and how to use an AED. By increasing the number of people who know how to perform CPR and use an AED it is believed that CPR can be initiated immediately by friends and family members, while waiting for the emergency people to arrive. The sooner CPR begins the better a person’s chance is of surviving.

Take Heart St. Cloud, is part of the nation-wide Take Heart America program. The project aims to increase the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest through community-wide CPR/AED training, distribution of new technology and implementation of new in-hospital treatments. St. Cloud is among only four communities in the country that have been selected to implement the program. This initiative is being funded through the CentraCare Health Foundation,Central MNHeart Center, the Medtronic Heart Rescue program, the St. Jude Medical Foundation and the Boston Scientific Foundation.

“It’s time for a new approach to saving the lives of people who experience Sudden Cardiac Arrest,” says Janet Steinkamp, St. Cloud Site Director. “We need to be ready to perform CPR on our fellow community members; their lives may depend on us.”

Take Heart St. Cloud brings doctors, nurses, paramedics, community leaders and community members together in a new project designed to dramatically increase the number of people who survive. The training goal of Take Heart St. Cloud is to train 25% of the 160,000 people in the Gold Cross Ambulance service area – that’s 40,000 people. With the help of the American Heart Association’s Family and Friends CPR Training kit, and individuals teaching their family and friends, this goal will easily be accomplished. Widespread CPR training plays a critical role in reducing deaths from cardiac arrest.

This class was sponsored by the St. Francis Xavier Health and Wellness Committee of Sister Cordelia Korkowski, OSF Pastoral Minister, Karen Reinholz, Jackie McCann, Deb Carey, Chuck and Sharon Kalkman, Bob Barret, Deacon Steve Yanish, Val Jefferson, Mary Mader, Wendi Johnson and Marilyn Ross.

Take Heart Anoka County takes new approach to save lives

COON RAPIDS, MN

Minn. — (March 19, 2008) — Take Heart Anoka County is a coalition of doctors, nurses, paramedics, health educators, and community leaders. They are joining together in an effort to dramatically increase the likelihood that someone who suffers sudden cardiac arrest will survive. It’s estimated that 350,000 people in the U.S. die from sudden cardiac arrest every year.

“Sudden cardiac arrest, sometimes known as a massive heart attack, is a top killer that can strike anyone, anywhere, without warning. Only one in 20 people survives. We think we can increase those odds to one in three,” said Charles Lick, M.D., co-founder of Take Heart Anoka County. Dr. Lick is also an emergency medicine specialist and medical director of Allina Medical Transportation.

Take Heart Anoka County received its initial funding from the Mercy & Unity Hospitals’ Foundation. “The Foundation is very pleased to play a part in such an important community activity. The entire Foundation Board saw this as an opportunity to save lives in the communities we serve,” said Julie Nelson Gotham, executive director of the Mercy & Unity Hospitals’ Foundation.

Take Heart Anoka County plans to increase the number of people trained in CPR, increase the number of publicly available automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, and train people to use them. Doctors, hospital staff and paramedics will be trained on advanced resuscitation techniques, including use of special resuscitation devices and rapid cooling of people who have suffered cardiac arrest to prevent brain damage.

Individuals, organizations and businesses that want more information can call Susan Nygaard at 612-262-4946 or look at the website: www.takeheartanoka.org.

“Take Heart America takes approaches that individually have been shown to increase a person’s chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest and combines them in the hope of dramatically increasing the number of people who survive,” said Keith Lurie, M.D., co-founder of Take Heart America.

Three other communities have signed on for Take Heart America: Austin-Travis County, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and St. Cloud, Minn. After an evaluation period, the program plans to apply its findings on a national basis.

Mercy and Unity Hospitals, located in Coon Rapids and Fridley, are non-profit hospitals that serve the northern Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Mercy and Unity respond to a wide range of health care needs. The hospitals are part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services dedicated to meeting the lifelong health care needs of communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. More information is at www.allina.com.

Recently, a grant from the Medtronic Foundation funded bystander CPR training in the Franklinton area using the CPR Anytime product. The grant trained 451 individuals directly and documented secondary training of 760 additional residents for a total of 1,211 people trained in bystander CPR. The bystander CPR rate in this area increased 9% and the survival to discharge among resuscitations attempted increased 6.4%. Training was provided at churches, schools, libraries, COSI, and Columbus Parks and Recreation.

Brookhaven’s tenth grade Teen SERT (School Emergency Response Training) class participated in the CPR Anytime program. Below are some of their thoughts on the program and their experiences.

Galad: “I had a chance to learn CPR from my teacher and school nurse. At first, I thought it was going to be too hard, but when I watched the video of CPR, it was so exciting and interesting. I was so happy with myself and feel like I can save a life. I was happy that my teacher taught me an important thing for my life.”

Ejay: “The people I taught thought it was important to learn because you never know when you will be in a medical emergency situation.”

Jeremy: “When you are teaching someone how to save another’s life, it makes you feel good. Teaching other people CPR is a serious matter in my eyes.”

Xavier: “When I taught my mother to do CPR, she was surprised at what I knew.”

Kyra: “The DVD made it a lot easier for my family to learn CPR.”

Teara: “Just knowing how to do CPR makes me feel safer than I was before I knew how.”

Lyndsi : “My mom said that it was so cool to learn how to do CPR. It was fun to teach my family CPR.”

Naima: “During my CPR presentation to my family, everybody was paying attention and was excited to do CPR.”

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