RALEIGH, N.C. — February is American Heart Month and advocates are trying to educate about the importance of hands-only CPR. According to the American Heart Association, there are more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the United States each year, with about 70% happening in homes. 

What You Need To Know

  • The American Heart Association says heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and a leading killer globally

  • Steps to saving a life include calling 911 and performing CPR 

  • Hands-only CPR can help if someone feels uncomfortable performing CPR 

Forty-six percent of cardiac arrest victims do not receive hands-only CPR. Because of statistics like these, advocates are stepping up to help remove barriers so more people know hands-only CPR. 

One of those people is Julie Wells. She is a survivor of sudden cardiac arrest.

“Unfortunately, so many people in my family suffer from heart issues that we find it necessary to have our own kind of safety plan and our own backup box, and for Christmas this year I purchased our very own AED,” Wells said. 

Wells said when she was 37, the day after Christmas, her daughter, then 6, came down to climb in bed with her and started screaming to her father, "Mommy’s blue." Wells said her husband ran back to the bedroom and told their daughter to call 911, while he started CPR until emergency medical services got there. 

“They shocked me with their own AED, got my heart back into rhythm and took me to Duke where I learned, when I woke up several days later, that I had suffered with what they call sudden cardiac death,” Wells said. 

Wells said that close call changed her life. She has had surgery to get an implanted cardioverter defibrillator on her heart, also known as an ICD. 

“When I don't feel comfortable going through medical detectors, I can’t have the typical MRI, I recently had to have a cardiac MRI and they have to come in and turn your machine off literally, I can’t be around magnets, because it will change the settings on my heart, and those are just the normality of our life now,” Wells said. 

Wells says she’s not on this journey alone — her sister and niece also have ICDs now. 

“Literally just relate to every single thing because it's really copy paste; we all did the same procedure,” Oakley Gaddy, Wells’ niece, said.

Gaddy had her ICD placement surgery last year when she was 13. 

“Julie's incident and just the connection of my mom also struggling with heart disease just like planted the seed of like maybe we should check the whole family out and we were lucky enough to kind of catch my disease early on because it could’ve become a bigger thing,” Gaddy said.

Both Gaddy and Wells are taking their experiences and working with the American Heart Association to shine a light on the importance of knowing hands-only CPR, which can help if someone feels uncomfortable performing CPR or fears accusations of inappropriate touching or hurting the person.

“Unfortunately, Black and Hispanic communities don't often receive the same amount of CPR and also women don't receive the same amount of CPR as men, so this is an important area for us to eliminate health disparities,” Anne Miller, the executive director of the American Heart Association, said. 

The association works to provide hands-only CPR training kits, which include inflatable mannequins on which people can practice the process. 

“You are going to push hard and fast, in the center of the chest at the beat of 100 to 120 beats per minute,” Miller said. 

Miller said 90% of cardiac arrest events that happen outside of the hospital are deadly. Knowing this, people like Wells, Gaddy and Miller are using their power to help save lives. 

“If you can apply CPR quickly to a victim, their chances of survival will double or triple, and that’s a statistic that we can’t ignore,” Miller said.