I have walked in years past in honor of my dear friend Brian Winger, who we lost to a heart attack a few years ago.
This year, the mission hits closer to home. I walk because on December 27, 2024 - on what should have been a wonderful sledding trip with my family - I died. On a beautiful winter day, I suffered a heart attack. My wife Laurie told me the next part of the story.
Luckily, a bystander called 911 while a Doctor vacationing with her family began performing CPR.
Over the next 20 minutes multiple heroes came together to save my life. A Bear Valley employee called her boyfriend - an EMT - to bring their personal AED as there wasn't one on site. A volunteer paramedic, who lived across the street took over performing CPR.
It took the efforts of 5 bystanders and 6 shocks from the AED to bring me back to life.
I cannot credit just good fortune for the events that day that saved my life; I credit the work of the American Heart Association. In addition to funding scientific research, advocating for stronger health policies, and educating the public on healthy lifestyles - the Heart Association is creating a Nation of Lifesavers.
My story of survival is the exception, not the norm. 9 out of 10 cardiac events that happen outside of the hospital end in death. The American Heart Association has a goal to double the rate of survival by 2030.
To accomplish this, the Association is working to train at least one individual in every household in America in Hands-Only-CPR, transforming our Nation of Bystanders to a Nation of Lifesavers.
I am asking you today to consider a donation to this lifesaving work. Donors like you are giving the gift of more time to families like mine.
Thank you,
Dan, Laurie, and the Staszak & Co. Family
