BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN)- Your heart is personal.
It's your passion. It's part of what makes you, YOU. That is why it's so important that we all take care of our hearts. We have teamed up with the American Heart Association to wear red and raise awareness.
Alex Lucas, 8, wears a special necklace every day to school. It's a medical alert pendant, which discretely details she suffers from a rare heart condition known as CPVT.
It's just the most joy for me to just watch her have a good time with just the simplest things," her mom Lori Lucas said.
Three years ago Alex was shopping with her mom Lori at Giant Eagle when she suddenly collapsed. Alex's heart had suddenly stopped beating.
"I yelled out for help and a few minutes later some of the workers started doing CPR on her and they had to use a defibrillator on her to bring her back," Lori said.
Giant Eagle corporate policy mandates that all managers and pharmacists are trained in CPR and how to use the AED. In this instance, the policy saved a little girl's life.
"These were just normal people at Giant Eagle that just knew what to do. It is a good thing we were there where people were trained and were able to take care of her," Lori said.
This year, the American Heart Association launched the "Nation of Lifesavers" campaign. The goal is to make sure one person in every household is trained in CPR.
"You never know it could be your 5-year-old grandchild or your brother or sister, anything can happen, it doesn't have to be an older person that has heart disease it could be someone that never even knew something was wrong or something could happen to them," Lori said.
During a cardiac arrest, immediate CPR is critical. According to the American Heart Association, it can double or even triple an person's chance of survival. In Alex's case, it made all the difference, and for her mom, that means absolutely everything.
"She's doing great, she takes medication twice a day, she has a defibrillator right underneath her rib cage so she'll have that her whole life. But she's thriving, she's doing the things she loves," Lori said.
