Heartbeat Rescue is to honor my father and to bring awareness to the importance of basic life saving measures.
My name is Kailyn Brown, and I am currently an Occupational Therapy student at Huntington University. I am working on my capstone project which focuses on equipping retail employees with education and training needed to prepare for emergency relief.
In 2022, my father was working at a well-known retail store and collapsed. He did not receive immediate basic life-saving measures from fellow coworkers or bystanders. His breathing had stopped, therefore his blood quit circulating. With the extended lack of oxygen to his brain, his outcome did not look promising. At 25 years old, and over 600 miles away, I had to make his medical decisions. It wasn’t until a day or two after the incident, brain scan imaging showed he still had brain activity. He did regain consciousness but had no recollection of my visit to see him at the hospital. He lived for almost another year before passing away in late 2023. There are a lot of “ifs” in his story, but if he would have had someone doing chest compressions immediately after he collapsed, to keep his blood flowing to his brain, his outcome may have been different.
This capstone project holds special meaning to me because I hope to prevent a situation like my father’s from occurring to others. I know I will make a difference in my community by bringing awareness to our ability to assist in emergent situations through basic life saving measures. It is my hope to help prevent similar outcomes from happening by setting a precedent of life saving training.
My goal through this project is to provide retail employees with basic lifesaving training (First Aid/CPR/AED) for free or a nominal fee. I am currently certified to instruct First Aid, CPR, and AED training to others; however, since this training is currently recommended, but not a requirement I want to continue to bring awareness to this issue.
While I can’t change what happened to my father, this is one thing that I can help to change. I know I can make a difference for others with this project. I will be graduating in May of this year with a doctorate in occupational therapy and want to passionately pursue this in the future to continue educating and supporting others. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my story.
Please feel free to reach out if you have a story you would like to share about yourself or loved one.