Year: 2014

**UPDATE: Friday, April 4th, 2014**

Our very first Saving Children’s Lives Instructor training took place in Botswana from 3/31 – 4/1 and was a resounding success. Over the course of two days, we graduated seven novice instructors. They have since implemented their new instructor skills for a new provider class of 17 participants.

**Original Post: March 20th, 2014**

I am pleased to share with you that the American Heart Association has been awarded our first international grant of $290,300 from the Asmund S. Laerdal Foundation, in support of our new international program, Saving Children’s Lives.

Today, more than four million children under the age of five die each year in limited resource countries, and we know that many of these children’s lives can be saved by increasing basic knowledge and skills of front-line healthcare workers. Our world-recognized expertise in both emergency cardiovascular care and systems change, along with our partner, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a leader in pediatric emergency care, make us uniquely qualified to help drastically reduce the current mortality rate and to improve the systems of care.

The purpose of Saving Children’s Lives is to significantly reduce the Under Five Mortality Rate, by providing basic, yet critical, pediatric emergency care training to frontline community health workers and integrating the training into the health care system for sustainable, long-term results.

With a successful demonstration pilot in Botswana completed, and encouragement from the Botswana Ministries of Health, Saving Children’s Lives will continue to deepen work in Botswana and will expand into Tanzania during this initial implementation phase. As we further prove and grow the program, we are seeking additional funding to scale the program into other areas of Sub Saharan Africa, as well as other countries across the globe.

On behalf of the AHA, I want to express our gratitude to Laerdal for helping to fund this initiative and potentially save millions of children’s lives. I also want to thank AHA Volunteer Dr. Peter Meaney, for his work serving as the Medical Director for the program.

We will continue to keep you abreast of the latest developments of the Saving Children’s Lives program.

AHA’s very own Alicia Pederson, Science Committee Manager for Emergency Cardiovascular Care Programs and a seasoned AHA Instructor, harnessed her CPR skills to save the life of her newborn puppy. Alicia wasn’t sure if CPR would help, but she knew she had to do something, and sprung into quick action, clearing the puppy’s airway and then delivering “mouth to snout” breaths and compressions. IT WORKED! Her story inspired us all and showed us that quick action really can make a life or death difference!

Read Alicia’s remarkable story on AHA’s blog!

One of our guiding values at the AHA is improving and extending people’s lives, and I’ve had the pleasure recently to be part of global meetings striving to do just that. Earlier this month, our joint AHA and Chinese Society of Cardiology (CSC) Senior Management Group (SMG) had a highly productive series of meetings in Beijing to kickoff our collaboration and development of quality improvement programs for Acute Coronary Syndrome and Atrial Fibrillation in China.

The project will be called Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China (CCC) and builds on the AHA’s 13 years of experience implementing Get with the Guidelines® in the US. The first phase of the project will establish a patient care registry and recruit the first 75 hospitals to participate in the program. Within 2 years it is expected that more than 200 hospitals throughout China will be participating in the program.

I’d especially like to thank Louise Morgan for her outstanding effort preparing and facilitating the meeting with her China counterparts. During our meeting, I also transitioned my role on the SMG to Kathryn Taubert, who I know will do an outstanding job.

Our community-based CPR & First Aid initiatives would not be possible without the help of generous sponsors. At the American Heart Association, we are passionate about educating and training as many people as possible in lifesaving CPR skills, and one of the ways we strive to accomplish this is through our CPR in Schools program. Ross Stores recognized the importance of this mission and mirrored our passion for educating the next generation of heroes.

Through an in-store cash register campaign that ran in 1,132 Ross stores across the country for four weeks in January and February, the retail chain and its patrons raised a whopping $2.77 million to support CPR in Schools. One hundred percent of the money raised during these two months will be donated to benefit the national program.

Ross customers were able to get a sense of the impact this campaign would have by reading about real life CPR heroes and survivors like Tommy Watson and Caleb Tisdale that were featured on in-store promotional flyers. These brave kids give the CPR in Schools program a face and validate the need for such an important fundraiser.

We would like to thank Ross and their customers for their generosity and for recognizing the importance of creating more heroes like Tommy and Caleb.

For more information on our CPR in Schools program, please visit www.heart.org/cprinschools.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of representing the AHA at the highly successful and productive American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) Global Healthcare Summit in Ahmedabad, India. The AAPI’s overarching mission is to assist and enable Indian American Physicians to excel in patient care, teaching and research in professional and community affairs.

While there, I participated in key leadership meetings and shared the global role and vision of AHA during the AAPI-AHA Liaison Committee at the summit. I was quite humbled to be recognized by the Health Minister of India, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, and the Cabinet Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr. Vayalar Ravi, for our organization’s strategic collaboration toward the common goal of reducing mortality from heart disease and stroke.

This trip exemplifies the progress of our global efforts. We currently have International Training Centers in more than 60 countries, and we look to expand our global footprint to improve worldwide survival rates and quality of life with our lifesaving CPR programs. We stand committed to the AAPI goals and plan to roll out programs focused on India in the near future. In fact, we are considering opening an office abroad in New Delhi, and Baroda Medical College in Gujarat, India is in the process of applying to become an AHA International Training Center.

Exciting things to come in India…stay tuned!

Fun Fact: Ahmedabad, India was home to Mohandas Gandhi – considered the father of the Indian independence movement. While in India, Gandhi’s obvious virtue, simplistic lifestyle, and minimal dress endeared him to the people. Many civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., used Gandhi’s concept of non-violent protest as a model for their own struggles.