Woman Saves Best Friend Who Suffered Heart Attack, Cardiac Arrest

By Gina Mayfield

Julie (left) and Rhonda (right)

On a warm September evening, Rhonda Kuehn arrived at the home of her longtime friend, Julie, for a cookout to celebrate her birthday. Shortly after arriving, Rhonda realized the 46-year-old birthday girl was noticeably absent and asked about her. Julie’s husband casually mentioned Julie felt overheated and had started to experience some chest pains, and that she had stepped away to rest privately.

“I went and fixed my dinner plate, and then I said to myself, ‘Well, no, I’m going to go check on her,’” Rhonda says. She found Julie with a cold towel wrapped around her neck and a fan blowing on her. “I asked her what her symptoms were, input them into the WebMD app on my phone and the results came back as a high possibility of a heart attack,” Rhonda says. “So we got in the car and started heading toward the hospital.”  The American Heart Association recommends calling 911 for a suspected heart attack and does not recommend driving to the hospital.

On the way there, Rhonda tried to make lighthearted conversation, but it quickly became clear that Julie was in a lot of pain. “She had her phone in her hand and just dropped it, then she was leaning over, and I just shook her a little bit,” Rhonda says. “I said, ‘Jules, Julie…‘ No response whatsoever. Then I missed the turn to the hospital.”

Rhonda turned another corner into a residential area and called 911. The dispatcher told her she needed to start chest compressions right away and asked if she could get Julie out of the car, which wasn’t possible. “Then Julie’s lips started turning blue and she wasn’t breathing,” Rhonda says. “The dispatcher told me to go over and lay Julie’s seat as far back as I could, straddle her lap and start doing compressions. The dispatcher talked me through it, she kept encouraging me.”  Chest compressions should be done on a firm, flat surface when possible.

After missing that turn, Rhonda didn’t know what street she was on, so the dispatcher struggled to pinpoint a location for first responders. “I’m facing the street as I’m doing compressions, and I see the ambulance pass us by, then the fire engine,” Rhonda says. At that point she starts doing compressions with one hand and honking the horn with the other in an effort to get the attention of local residents. No help came.

Finally, a police officer spotted them and ran over to help get Julie on the ground and take over compressions. By this point, onlookers had started appearing on their front lawns and Rhon

Rhonda, first officer on the scene Cory Contreras, and Julie (left to right)

da asked them to flag down the ambulance at the street. EMTs arrived, used a defibrillator, and rushed Julie to the hospital where she spent days in intensive care and left with a device implanted in her heart that can be monitored. “They did all kinds of testing and found no reason for her to have a cardiac arrest,” Rhonda says. “It’s still a mystery.”

What’s not a mystery, is that Rhonda’s actions that day saved her friend’s life. Many years earlier she had taken a CPR class at a local community college in their hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, and that experience came back to her right when she needed it.

In the days, weeks and months that followed, the thanks came pouring in from Julie and her friends and family, including a card from Julie’s sister. “She sent me a picture of her siblings and nieces and nephews and wrote, This is the family that thanks you for saving our sister,” says Rhonda, who’s quick to point out the others who helped too, including that 911 dispatcher. “She talked me through it and kept me from getting emotional,” Rhonda says. “Julie has thanked me over and over, but there’s appreciation that needs to go all the way around. It’s definitely not a one-person thing. It’s just a big team that made it possible.”

Julie and Rhonda got to meet that dispatcher in person, along with the local fire and rescue team, as well as the police officer who was first on the scene. Then one day a letter came in the mail from the Lincoln, Nebraska, police department. “When I first got it, I thought, Oh my goodness, what did I do?,” Rhonda says. But instead of a citation, it was an invitation – to a ceremony honoring citizens who had saved a life.

The AHA is committed to transforming a nation of bystanders into a Nation of Lifesavers. Join the movement that can make a difference in the life of someone’s partner, parent, friend, or family.

By Erikah Woodworth

Bill Wehlage was in the middle of teaching his Sunday school lesson at Grace Harbor Baptist Church in Grove, Okla. in mid-March 2023 when he suffered cardiac arrest.

Just as his class began to dive into discussion questions, Bill headed to the back of the room to take a seat when suddenly he collapsed in his chair.

“The room just started spinning,” Bill recalled. “And I went black.”

Concerned, Joey Gregory, a student in the class who is also a nurse practitioner at Grove Integris Hospital, sprung up from his seat. Joey has been a member of the church since 2017 and says that Bill always gave them a hard time about falling asleep during class, but this time everyone realized that this wasn’t another one of his jokes.

With no underlying heart conditions at 57, his friends and family never expected that Bill would be in a fight for his life right before their very eyes, especially not his better half, Karen Wehlage, who rushed to his side when she felt that something just wasn’t right.

Left to right – Bill Wehlage, Joey Gregory, Macy Dean, Josh West (State Representative for Oklahoma) and Pastor Marty Hughes

Church officials already had an emergency response plan in place and began to take immediate action. While one member called 911, another ran to the church gymnasium to notify Macy Dean, a medic at Grove Integris Hospital who was on the church’s Rapid Response Team.

Joey and Macy live through moments like these every day, but this one was personal. According to Joey, Bill is “someone who would give you the shirt off his back and help anyone,” and seeing a longtime friend in this condition was something he didn’t think he would have to face in his 20 years of being a healthcare professional.

“You feel like someone punches you in the stomach,” Joey said. “You can’t catch your breath.”

Joey said but something just clicks, and you get through that emotion.

Bill’s breathing continued to get worse. Seconds later, he was no longer responsive and without a pulse.

Macy took the lead with compressions and Joey applied a bag-mask for ventilation while Grove Fire Department who happened to be in the neighborhood over was on the way with an automated external defibrillator (AED). Bill was in ventricular fibrillation, a dangerous and abnormal heart rhythm that resulted from disordered electrical activity of the heart. Every second mattered.

The air within the classroom was thick and full of prayers from close family, friends and loved ones as they watched the first responders try to resuscitate Bill.

“I walked away because I didn’t want to watch it,” Karen said.

In less than five minutes, Grove Fire Department arrived with an AED allowing Joey and Macy to work alongside the very same healthcare providers that they know and trust to save Bill. A shock was applied as advised by the AED and after five minutes of high-quality CPR, a normal heart rhythm was restored. Bill was conscious, responsive, and witty as ever.

His first words after a cardiac arrest? “Ya’ll aren’t getting out of finishing those discussion questions.”

Bill was used to putting people first so naturally, he was more interested in finishing his Sunday school class for those who desired to grow their faith, than getting to a hospital for post-cardiac arrest care. Nonetheless, to recover so quickly seconds after resuscitation was a rarity in itself.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I have never seen that in my whole career,” Joey said.

Bill was in far better condition than any other heart patient his doctors had ever seen. After being in the hospital for only two days for pacemaker implantation surgery, he was back at Sunday school a week later teaching again.

“Originally, I wasn’t even supposed to be there on that Sunday,” Joey recalled as he reflected on how everything could have ended differently that day.

After wrapping up a week of vacation with his three kids, Joey was exhausted and didn’t want to leave his bed. But as a member of the praise and worship team, Joey says he felt a sense of responsibility and decided to push his way to church Sunday morning.

That sense of responsibility helped save a life.

The Wehlage’s live further out in the country of Jay, Oklahoma and with Karen’s limited knowledge of CPR and first aid training, they are grateful that it happened not only when it did, but where it did.

“It could not have been a more perfect situation,” Macy said as she credited her faith in the reason why everything fell into place to save Bill’s life.

According to Karen, Bill never cries, but “he was constantly tearing up,” not only from the realization that they brought him back from death, but also from the thought of leaving his wife behind.

Bill hasn’t received CPR training since he retired as an Army Chaplain in 2013 and says that this experience helped him realize the importance of CPR training and staying up to date with his skills.

To continue to spread awareness in their community, the church presented AHA Heartsaver Hero Awards to Joey and Macy, alongside Oklahoma State representatives, Josh West, and pastor Marty Hughes during a  Sunday service.

“AEDs save lives. CPR saves lives. We’re living proof of it,” Joey said.

Joey and Macy received advanced and basic CPR training through the American Heart Association and are equipped with the skill, experience, and mental strength to carry out the chain of survival. Currently seven in 10 of Americans do not have the knowledge or confidence to act in the event of a cardiac arrest. As an AHA CPR Instructor for 10 years, Joey said he wants to continue to be a part of the solution and educate the community.

“If there is anything you can do to save a human life, do it,” Bill said. “And train to be your best!”

The AHA is committed to transforming a nation of bystanders into a Nation of Lifesavers. Join the movement that can make a difference in the life of someone’s partner, parent, friend, or family.

By Gina Mayfield

After a cornhole tournament late one Thursday night, Rob Schulte drove home along a deserted stretch of Route 16 in Macoupin County, Illinois. “I’m going down the road, and it started getting really dark. Next thing you know, I’m hitting chunks of mud and I’m wondering, What’s going on? I look in my rearview mirror and I see mud flying up,” Rob says. “Then I look forward, and all of a sudden I have to slam on my brakes. There’s a black car in the middle of the road — upside down. I didn’t even see it until I about hit it. I was headed right into it.”

Rescuer: Rob Schulte

He immediately pulled over, got out of his car and went to see if he could help. With the car on its roof, Rob got down and repeatedly started yelling, “Anybody in here?!” No answer. With the cab of the car smashed in and the airbags deployed, he couldn’t see much. Then the strong odor of gasoline served as a warning to move away.

Rob ran toward a big ditch on the side of the road, weaving his way through car parts. “I started yelling for people and running around using the flashlight on my phone as a guide. I look down and see a blue object in the weeds. Sure enough, it’s a body. I was telling myself, Please be alive, please be alive,” he says.

Rob runs over to find a survivor unconscious, but breathing. There was no telling how long he had been there. Rob tapped him on the shoulder, which elicited a moan. Then Rob looked down and noticed the man’s leg snapped in two. Blood squirted out with every pulse.

“He was laying sideways, the way you would lay on a pillow. Half his face was covered in weeds, but looked fine,” Rob says. “Then he rolled over. His jaw was broken, lots of teeth were busted out of his mouth, half his head was just drenched in blood.”

That’s when the man tried to get up. In an effort to keep him calm and still, Rob turned to him and said, “Sir, just sit here. I’m going to do what I can to help you.” With that, Rob took off his own shirt and used it as a tourniquet on the man’s leg, then applied pressure to stop the bleeding. He got out his phone and called 911 on speaker.

Ten to 15 minutes later, the state police arrived, closely followed by volunteer firemen. They doublechecked the car, then EMS showed up and took over. They radioed for a medical helicopter to transport the man to a hospital, and that was the last communication Rob heard about the man.

“It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever been through in my life, but because of my training, I was prepared for it,” he says. That training included CPR AED, First Aid, Blood Borne Pathogens and others. Rob’s worked at the same production plant for 13 years, during 12 of which he’s served as what they call a MRT or Medical Response Team member. As part of that group, he’s had yearly training.

“I tell everybody the same thing,” Rob says. “Please get American Heart Association training. You may not ever use it, but if there comes a time you need it, you’ll be prepared. That’s what I preach.”

Out in a far-flung corner of southwest Colorado sits Moffat Consolidated School District #2, home to the Moffat PreK-12 School Cowboys and Crestone Charter School (K-12). Both schools have a grand total of just over 200 students … combined. “It’s a small community, the town of Moffat has a little over 100 people in it,” says district school nurse Sarah Elchos, MSN, RN. “It’s not really a small town, it’s more frontier.”

With that designation comes challenges, especially in regard to the availability of emergency services. “One is Moffatt and Crestone do not have a nearby hospital. The closest one is 35 minutes away, and Moffat doesn’t have an ambulance service,” Sarah says. In the event of an emergency, the schools have to rely on neighboring towns for help, which can mean a 35-minute wait before lights and sirens reach their front door. “So there really is a need for our people to actually be able to save someone while we wait on the ambulance,” Sarah says. “And we didn’t have a CERP in place.” 

A CERP, or Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, can increase sudden cardiac arrest survival rates by 50 percent or more by enabling a trained lay-responder team — such as teachers — to take action until Emergency Medical Services arrive.

“Through my school email, I got an invitation to a free, online Project Adam webinar from the American Heart Association (AHA) and Children’s Hospital Colorado,” Sarah says. Project Adam is a nonprofit that helps schools establish a CERP through its Heart Safe Schools program.

“They actually have a tool that helped me fast track my plan,” Sarah says. “It had a checklist and explained everything needed for the school CPR/AED progam. It’s a step-by-step guideline. It was exactly what I needed.”

Indeed, Project Adam provides the foundation for schools to plan and develop their own program, including CERP templates, a reference manual and even one-on-one consultation. Everything is customizable, even for schools on the frontier. Also, because of Sarah’s seminar attendance, the district received free mannequins and other educational supplies to teach hands-only CPR and AED training to students.

“I got the CERP written and approved through the superintendent, and she let the school board know,” Sarah says. Through a nurse grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Sarah got the additional hours she needed to work the plan, going from just 20 hours per week to 40.

First, she ordered the American Heart Association’s Heartsaver® CPR/First Aid/AED Training, designed for anyone with limited or no medical training who wants to learn how to give CPR and use an AED in a safe, timely and effective manner. “I wanted us to really be prepared if something happens,” she says. “We had AEDs, and I’m an old ICU nurse, so I wanted to make sure people knew how to use them,” Sarah says. “Initially, I was shocked by the number of ‘Oh, we have an AED?’ questions.”

During the 2020-2021 school year, she used the AHA Heartsaver course to train 19 teachers, as well as a group near and dear to her heart — interested graduating seniors, just in time for them to go off into the world. She also taught hands-only compressions to fourth and fifth graders at the Moffat school.

Toward the end of the school year, it was time for a drill, which proved helpful. Sarah placed a dummy in the front office, and so it began. “The call for help was put out over the walkie-talkies. That’s one thing we immediately identified that we need to do better, make sure the whole school is aware, not just the walkie-talkie users.”

She now awaits the results of her submission to Project Adam for Moffat to be designated as a Heart Safe School. She’s hopeful that the Title 1 school has enough AEDs to qualify, meaning one available in three minutes from anywhere on the facility. Come June, Sarah will be able to apply for a grant to get even more AEDs. “I have everything ready to apply,” she says, in true Sarah style.

“It’s all been well received,” she says. “This was my first time teaching children, and I felt more comfortable starting with the younger classes, then I’ll move on to the older groups. I really want to teach hands-only to middle school up to tenth grade, and I’m hoping I can expand the AHA Heartsaver to eleventh and twelfth grades every other year.”

So what’s been her biggest secret to success? “It’s just perseverance and staying on top of it,” Sarah says. “There’s no need to put a lot of pressure on yourself. Just let it flow.”

By Gina Mayfield

For Pamela Seamans, the last weekend in September always brings with it an adventure of sorts for her and her girlfriends, most in their 50s. “We’ve always taken an annual girls’ trip, and we always try to find something that’s a little, you know … edgy,” she says with smile.

September 2022 proved no different with a three-hour drive to the Catskills for an excursion that would involve a little more than just leaf peeping. By day three of the trip, they had already conquered so much, including pedaling their way on rail bikes through the woods of the Catskill Mountains. After breakfast, they made their way to the local ski lodge to hit the zip lines. Music played as they suited up in zipline gear and headed to the top of the mountain on a ski lift for a quick rundown of what to expect. “It was a little unnerving at first because we thought we were going to do some casual ziplining,” Pamela says. “This was a 610-foot cliff.”

Pamela volunteered to go first, soon followed by her friend Mary. “She did something kind of funny. She kind of did this little look, like she passed out. But she came right back around and was talking to us. We wondered what was going on at first, and watched her, but she said nothing about chest pain,” Pamela says. Knowing Mary’s fear of heights – “she’s petrified,” says Pamela – and understanding what a challenge the course was, they chalked it up to a little blip.

“I’m a nurse of over 30 years. I’ve been in critical care. I teach American Heart Association ACLS and BLS. I was watching Mary, and she was really good. So we did lots of challenging things, and we were finally approaching the launch spot of our last zipline,” Pamela says. That’s when they all heard Mary say, “I think I’m going to pass out,” before she fell to the ground.

Pamela ran to her and immediately could see Mary’s ear turning “as blue as blue could be” through her helmet. Pamela turned her over on her back, and initially thought Mary had an aortic aneurysm that had ruptured because her color turned so quickly. If that were the case, there would be little she could do. “I didn’t know,” Pamela says and decided to do what she could. “So I yelled out, ‘I’m starting CPR!’ thinking that I was going to get a bunch of people to go, ‘Oooh, I know that!’” Nobody budged.

She asked if there was an AED and instructed the crowd to call 911. Pamela started CPR and after several minutes made a plea to the crowd, “I am not going to be able to sustain this. I’m going to need somebody to help.” Two people stepped forward, one who had never taken a CPR class and one who did many years earlier. Pamela said to that second person, “That’s fine. I’m going to talk you through everything.” So she did.

“I told him, ‘As soon as I go to do my breaths, I need you to place your hands exactly where mine are,’” Pamela says. “I gave her two breaths and said, ‘Okay start. I’ll adjust you if I need to.’ I count my blessings. He was phenomenal. I couldn’t have asked for a better person.”

He continued compressions while Pamela used a pair of bandage scissors to remove Mary’s clothing, just in time for the arrival of the AED. “When we stood clear, she was in a shockable rhythm, so we were able to administer that first shock,” Pamela says. Then came more compressions and breaths, and Mary had a very faint heartbeat. “So we all started rallying and yelling for her – Mary, you can fight! – and you could see things changing,” Pamela says.

One of the local guides was holding Mary’s hand, and he said he could feel her hand getting warm, then she squeezed his hand and he could feel her heartbeat becoming stronger and faster. “The next thing you know, she was trying to sit up,” Pamela says. Just then, the EMTs arrived – 30 minutes after the call went out to 911. “Being a healthcare worker, I have never had anybody I’ve worked on for 30 minutes not only survive, but survive with no deficits,” Pamela says. But that’s what happened to Mary because two people who knew CPR intervened on her behalf.

Because this incident happened “on a mountain in the middle of nowhere,” as Pamela says, Mary had to be transported in the rescue basket of an ATV to a cleared parking lot where a medical helicopter landed to rush her to Albany Medical Center.

Pamela eventually reconnected with the man who helped her, and he shared a moment from their rescue that really stuck with him. Pamela had said to him, “Listen, you are her heart right now, and I’m her lungs. We are the only things that are physically keeping her alive.” The man said to Pamela, “I didn’t realize how important, and what a huge impact CPR truly, truly makes if you do it right.”

Late that night, the girls got a call – from Mary herself. “We all just started screaming,” Pamela recalls. Mary had a widow-maker heart attack, was in the Critical Care Unit, but could see visitors the next morning. With the image of Mary’s blank stare still fresh in her mind, Pamela walked into that hospital room. “As soon as I saw her, that’s when it really, finally sunk in. It was her eyes. She’s got these beautiful, beautiful blue eyes. That was one of the very first telltale signs that told me she was coming back while we were working on her. So when I walked in and I saw her eyes and that blue … . She just started crying when she saw me and vice versa.”

Plans are already in the works for next year’s girls trip – one not quite so “edgy.” In the meantime, they’ve all gotten together with their families to learn CPR, and Pamela is back teaching CPR at her hospital. “I now have a story, a truly awesome story. I tell my classes, ‘Listen, this is a gift this hospital is giving you. I worked on a very good friend of mine for 30 minutes, and it made a difference. I turned her around, and we still have her today. CPR is something you want to know.’”

By Gina Mayfield

On a busy weekday, as Kansas City Metro Patrol Officers Richard DuChaine and Charles Owen sat in their patrol car finalizing notes on a previous call, another one came in: Medical nature unknown. A 1-month-old was not breathing.

“Before the call was even completely dispatched to us, I already had the car in drive and we were on our way with our lights and sirens. We wanted to make sure the parents could hear us coming,” Officer Owen says. Luckily, they just so happened to be extraordinarily close to the address provided by dispatch. They arrived to find a very cute toddler holding the door open for them.

“It felt like they got here in 30 seconds, but it may have been a minute or two,” says Tajanea Allen, the mother of the baby in distress, Ka’Miyah. “The dispatcher had just said to me, ‘I’m going to direct y’all through CPR,’ but before he even had a chance to do that, Officers DuChaine and Owen were running up to our house.”

Turns out that morning baby Ka’Miyah had woken up in a very lethargic state. “She wouldn’t stay awake or keep her eyes open. Her dad knew something was wrong. His instincts just kicked in. Then she just took a deep breath. That was her last breath,” Tajanea says. They frantically tried calling the local hospital, but it quickly became clear that it would take too long to get through. That’s when they called 911 and the officers took off for their home.

“We ran in and when I saw the baby, I thought it might have been a prank call because she was so small, she looked like a doll,” Officer Owen says. Sure enough, the 1-month-old was a preemie whose original due date was still more than a week away. She weighed just over 4 pounds. Dad handed the baby off to Officer DuChaine. “She was lifeless, she was really gone,” Tajanea says.

Fortunately, the Kansas City Metro Police prepares its officers well with CPR training every year. “We have adult-size manikins and we have manikins for babies, so we’ve actually practiced this scenario numerous times,” Officer DuChaine says. “Once I had the baby in the palm of my hand, I didn’t feel a heartbeat at all. So that’s when I immediately started doing infant chest compressions.”

They wanted to make sure Ka’Miyah absolutely didn’t have anything in her airways. “That was when we could see life start coming back to her,” Officer DuChaine says, noting they got her on her side and checked her airway. “She finally started breathing again, which was a sigh of relief for us.”

Shortly thereafter, EMS arrived on the scene and asked the parents for a car seat to transfer Ka’Miyah to a major children’s hospital. About 2 hours after she arrived, she went into cardiac arrest and ended up in the ICU.

Throughout the day, the officers couldn’t stop thinking about baby Ka’Miyah. “This whole thing got to me because I had a preemie daughter myself, so I knew exactly what those parents were feeling at that point in time. I’ve been in their shoes,” Officer DuChaine says. Eventually they asked their supervisor if they could make a follow-up trip to the hospital and off they went.

That’s where they learned doctors had just diagnosed Ka’Miyah with RSV, a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. She stayed in the hospital for almost a week before making a full recovery and returning home to understandably protective parents.

“I’m very grateful for those officers. Officer DuChaine is a hero,” Tajanea says. “He was one of the first people we allowed to see our daughter after she came home from the hospital. He deserved that.”

As the holidays roll around, everyone’s looking for that special gift – something meaningful, worthwhile and of great value. Whether you’re shopping for new parents or grandparents, there’s one gift that works for every member of your family: the gift of CPR.

Considering 73.9 percent of adult cardiac arrests happen in the home, chances are your family members could save someone you all know and love. Every second counts in cardiac arrest, if performed immediately, CPR can double or triple the chance of survival from an out of hospital cardiac arrest.

The AHA’s Community Training Kits make a great gift choice, particularly the CPR Anytime program, which allows your gift recipients to learn basic lifesaving skills in about 20 minutes from the comfort and privacy of their own home or workplace.

Have soon-to-be or new parents in your life? Consider the Infant CPR Anytime Training Kits, which makes it possible for anyone to learn how to perform infant CPR and provide infant choking relief. This kit also makes a great gift for grandparents, babysitters, nannies and anyone who wants to learn lifesaving infant CPR and choking relief skills. The kit is co-branded with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Consider Abby’s story. While in a dressing room trying on clothes, she heard a call come over the store’s radio saying there was someone who didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing. Because she knew CPR, Abby raced to the scene expecting to see an elderly person, but instead found a mother and baby. Abby sprung into action and saved the baby’s life. “You never know when an emergency is going to happen and no one’s going to be there to help. I think anyone could do CPR, could learn that skill. It just gives you a great feeling inside knowing that someone else is living out the rest of their life because of you,” she says.

Another great option is the Adult & Child CPR Anytime Training Kits, which allow anyone to master the basics of adult Hands-Only CPR, child CPR with breaths, adult and child choking relief and general awareness of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Justin’s story really drives home the value of this course. On a Friday afternoon, 15-year-old Justin was playing in the backyard with a group of friends when a lacrosse ball hit him on the chest, in the exact location and at the exact millisecond of his heart’s rhythm, causing a condition known as commotio cordis. Thankfully, the kids called for help and a neighbor ran over to start CPR, which kept Justin’s blood circulating to vital organs until paramedics arrived. “This was such a freak accident, it could happen to anyone,” Justin’s mom says. “If our neighbor didn’t know CPR, Justin wouldn’t be here. I encourage everyone to take the time to learn CPR. You could save a life, maybe the life of someone you love.”

The AHA designed both of the kits mentioned in this story as self-directed, 20-minute personal learning programs and as an all-in-one solution that includes everything needed to complete high-quality training anywhere. Skills are taught with the AHA’s research-proven, practice-while-watching technique, which allows participants to practice on a manikin while observing a demonstration of the skills on video. A bilingual (English and Spanish) DVD and user guide come with every kit.

Your gift recipients can refresh their skills as often as needed and even pass along the kit to others once they’re finished with it, so it truly is a gift that keeps on giving.