MILWAUKEE — February is Heart Month. The goal is to empower people to take care of their heart health and reduce their risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for both men and women.
TMJ4’s Sydni Eure met with CPR instructor Tiffany Pitts, owner of Healthy Hearts Training, to learn more about the life-saving steps you can take to save someone’s life in the event of cardiac arrest.
According to the American Heart Association, 70% of Americans can feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency.
Pitts said she decided to take heart health into her own hands after her grandmother died. Pitts said her grandmother had a heart attack following complications related to heart disease.
Watch: Tiffany Pitts explains why everyone should get CPR certified:
“A lot of times, even within families, even in my family, heart disease runs rampant,” said Pitts. “My grandmother died at the age of 42 from cardiac arrest and had 13 children. The youngest was two that she left behind. So, the month of February I feel like brings awareness to it.”
The family loss, coupled with a need she saw for CPR training during the pandemic, made her realize it was the right time to jump into action.
Pitts said she aligned with the American Heart Association and the Red Cross to become a CPR instructor. This allowed her to open her own training site, Healthy Hearts, and she has been training ever since. To date, Pitts and the team of instructors with Healthy Hearts have conducted over 1,000 CPR training sessions for kids as young as eight years old, local churches, and even outsourced to employers so everyone can stay up to date with certifications and life-saving knowledge.
“A lot of people, they’re just not aware of the signs and the symptoms of it,” said Pitts. “I feel like it’s not something that’s promoted enough."
Pitts said heart disease can increase the risk of heart attack, but even sudden cardiac arrest is very common. More than 300,000 people across the U.S. die each year because of it. All the more reason, Pitts said, you should get certified.
You can find CPR classes by emailing Tiffany Pitts at tiffanypitts1025@gmail.com or with a simple Google search. The Red Cross and American Heart Association can also direct you to training opportunities.
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