Starting Hearts, a nonprofit committed to increasing awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), announced today that Trista and Ryan Sutter have partnered with the Colorado-based organization to bring attention to their first-ever Save More Lives Challenge. Ryan Sutter was one of the firefighters who helped save the life of Starting Hearts’ founder Lynn Blake when she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and required defibrillation to be revived.
“I can't thank the Sutter family enough for supporting our Save More Lives Challenge,” said Lynn Blake, founder of Starting Hearts. “Ryan was one of the first responders on scene when I experienced sudden cardiac arrest on February 14, 2007, and I am forever grateful for his team’s swift care and life saving actions. Our relationship has truly come full circle and it is undeniably symbolic to have their endorsement given Ryan's role in my survival. The more people we can train on CPR and preventable measures, the more we can change the statistics and increase survival rates. Our team and community couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with Ryan and Trista to propel our goal of saving 100,000 lives per year by 2040.”
As pillars in the local Colorado community and the nation, Ryan and Trista plan to share their support through social media and their networks by creating videos of themselves and their family performing compressions on household items while also encouraging others to learn CPR and effective techniques to respond to a SCA emergency.
“As a first responder, my job is to keep people safe and save as many lives as possible, so we're honored to be a part of Lynn’s journey,” said Ryan Sutter, “Bachelorette” star, firefighter and Starting Hearts Ambassador. “Starting Hearts stands for such an incredible mission and is so meaningful to our community. We’re excited to lend our voices and platform to help combat this silent, but deadly condition. In celebration of American Heart Month and this campaign, we challenge everyone out there to consider how they would respond if cardiac arrest occurred in their presence and share this movement with their family and friends.”
Those looking to join the #SaveMoreLives Challenge can help by:
1. Watching the two-minute CALL. PUSH. SHOCK.™ training video at savemorelives.org
2. Practicing CPR with household items (i.e. ball, pillow, plastic bottle, etc.), sharing photos/videos using hashtag #savemorelives, and challenging others to do the same
3. Signing the Save More Lives Challenge petition to encourage the tracking of SCA in the U.S.
4. Donating by texting CPR to 50155 or visiting savemorelives.org
5. Being a Save More Lives Challenge Ambassador by asking family, friends, and networks to join the campaign.
Funds raised from the Save More Lives Challenge will go towards implementing more CPR and defibrillation programs to address SCA locally and nationally. For more information on Starting Hearts, visit startinghearts.org. To get involved with the Save More Lives Challenge, visitsavemorelives.org. To join the conversation on social media, follow @startinghearts on Instagram and Facebook.
