Sudden Cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes.

The Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation of Indiana has created Reviving Hearts, a newly-launched program aiming to ensure that all Central Indiana high schools are equipped to handle a heart emergency with one piece of onsite equipment, an Automated External Defibrillator. Sudden Cardiac Arrest occurs abruptly and without warning, and two-thirds of SCA deaths occur in people without any prior indications of heart disease. To have a chance of surviving, victims of SCA must receive a life-saving defibrillation within the first 4-6 minutes when brain damage and death starts to occur.

Automated Electronic Defibrillators (AED’s) can increase the survival rate for SCA up to 90% by delivering a shock within the first few minutes of an attack. This year the annual Dining A La Heart Fundraiser Event will benefit The Reviving Hearts Program, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation of Indiana, Inc. For the next five years CREFI will be focusing on placing AED’s in high schools throughout central Indiana where hundreds of lives could be saved. For every $2000 we raise one AED with training and follow up procedures can be placed in a local high school. The goal is to place 100 AED’s during 2008.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SAVING HOOSIER LIVES WITH CREFI’S REVIVING HEARTS