KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Monday’s event of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest shocked and frightened many people nationally.
For a family and their peers, it brought back painful memories.
“So many things were similar to what we remember,” said Ashley Dwight.
Last summer, 17-year-old Davis Dwight went into cardiac arrest went into cardiac arrest while at baseball practice.
It took 13 minutes of CPR, an AED(automated external defibrillator), paramedics and an intubation to treat Davis.
Nick Croutz, at Mac N Seitz baseball club, couldn't help but remember the events with Davis when watching the events with Hamlin unfold.
“When I saw (Hamlin) collapse, the memory of Davis collapsing came upon me,” said Crouch, Director of Baseball Operations at Mac N Seitz. “How quickly it can happen is very real.”
“It can happen to absolutely anyone at any given time it doesn’t matter your age,” said Davis Dwight.
The events with Davis prompted Ashley Dwight to try and help more people learn on what to do when someone suddenly suffers cardiac arrest and how to give CPR.
So she and her family started 13 Beats, which aimed to helped promote the process of helping people learn how to give CPR and also learn how to use an an AED(automated external defibrillator).
In October, Ashley Dwight and 13 Beats trained 300 adults and teenagers on the process of giving CPR.
They taught the importance of keeping someone alive until first responders can get there.
Ashley Dwight wants people to know the basics that they didn’t know until the worst happened.
Davis, luckily, has now made a full recovery and is back to playing baseball.
But it took a lot of time in the hospital to help get Davis back on his feet.
Dwight says she hopes, that with most of the nation watching the events with Hamlin, it will push the importance of saving a life.
“When people see it, it rocks so many people, people need to understand the urgency of what cardiac arrest is,” said Ashley Dwight. "When things like this hit, people are more apt to want to learn.”
Ashley and her family are now working to make sure every organization are ready to handle cardiac arrest, which includes all of them have AED's/
AED’s cost around $1,300, but the Dwight family and 13 Beats are try to raise money so organizations can get them for free.
You can apply for one here.
13 Beats will soon also be adding a free event in February where people of all ages can learn CPR and how to use an AED in just twenty minutes.
