Heart & Sroke brochure

Portable defibrillators save lives … but they’re only as good as their operators.

Please give today.

Help train Alberta’s youth to create more survivors tomorrow.

Call toll-free 1-888-473-4636 or visit heartandstroke.ab.ca

If your company is interested in a partnership with the Heart & Stoke Foundation, please contact John Masters, Director of Corporate Partnerships (Alberta), Heart & Stroke Foundation at: 403-351-7034 or jmasters@hsf.ab.ca. Together, we can help create more survivors.

Teach Alberta’s youth to save lives today They’ll help create more survivors tomorrow

Cardiac arrest and AEDs: What you need to know

She lost her child to cardiac arrest.

It didn’t have to happen.

On May 22, 2012, Brock Ruether’s short life came to a tragic end.

He was only 16.

What is cardiac arrest?

Why are AEDs so important?

Cardiac arrest is a failure of the heart’s electrical system. Immediate defibrillation is essential because a shock must be administered while the victim’s heart is in a shockable rhythm.

This opportunity usually lasts only a few minutes.

Without immediate treatment, the victim will suffer brain damage within three minutes and will rarely survive past 12 minutes. Using an AED can restore the heart’s normal rhythm.

In fact, performing CPR and using an AED before emergency medical services arrive can double the chance of survival.

What is an AED? An Automated External Defibrillator is a portable, safe, easy-to-use electronic device used to restart a heart that has stopped beating.

Who can use an AED? You don’t have to be a medical professional to save a life. AEDs can be used by non-medical people, including young adults, to restore heart rhythm and save lives. AEDs are easy to use, but training is critical. With more people trained and confident to use them, thousands of Canadian lives could be saved each year.

Brock went into cardiac arrest during volleyball practice at school. There was a defibrillator nearby, but no one had been trained to use it — and by the time emergency services arrived, it was too late.

Brock’s heartbroken mom, Kim Ruether, doesn’t blame school staff. But what makes her grief even harder to bear is knowing her son might have lived had someone at the school been trained to use the AED. Ruether has since founded Project Brock, an initiative to get AEDs and training into schools across Alberta and Canada. It’s her way of making something good come from unbearable loss.

“Concussions (in hockey) are serious, but rarely do they cause a fatality,” Ruether says.

“We’ve lost hundreds of kids to cardiac arrest, but it’s not publicized like the concussions. There’s not really a lot of information around AEDs and people are afraid to use them.

“We need to have somebody that is willing to get out there and say, ‘OK this is ridiculous. A boy died in this school with an AED lying beside him.

All it would have taken is a five-minute campaign to make everybody aware that AEDs are simple to use and that they’re the only things that can save these kids.”

Please give today so that other Alberta moms never have to experience the pain of losing a child to cardiac arrest.

Healthy lives free of heart disease and stroke The Heart & Stroke Foundation’s mission is to prevent disease, save lives and promote recovery.

As a volunteer-based health charity, we strive to improve the health of every Canadian family, every day.

On a national scale, the Foundation is partnering with the Canadian government to get life-saving defibrillators into 2,000 hockey arenas and recreation centres across Canada, and to teach people how to use them.

Through our network of instructors, we train about 440,000 Canadians every year in CPR and AED use. Training is important, but it’s important to remember that AEDs are still safe and easy for the general public to use.

The Alberta initiative we’re writing about today is separately funded and specific to schools.

Your support will help create a tradition in which Grade 10 Albertans receive the training, and have an AED in their school.

It’s all part of our mission to improve the health of Canadian families.

Portable defibrillators save lives … but they’re only as good as their operators.

Please give today.

Help train Alberta’s youth to create more survivors tomorrow.

Call toll-free 1-888-473-4636 or visit heartandstroke.ab.ca

If your company is interested in a partnership with the Heart & Stoke Foundation, please contact John Masters, Director of Corporate Partnerships (Alberta), Heart & Stroke Foundation at: 403-351-7034 or jmasters@hsf.ab.ca. Together, we can help create more survivors.

Teach Alberta’s youth to save lives today They’ll help create more survivors tomorrow