Skip to content

Celebrating heart month with heart health

Graphic Angels Among Us

 

Troy Stockman and Randy Cupps from The South Denver Heart Center Foundation had the privilege of fulfilling a request for an AED from Restoration Outreach Programs, a community organization with a mission to meet needs, build relationships and restore lives through community outreach program Christ in the East Colfax.

February is heart month, so it is the perfect time to celebrate nonprofit South Denver Heart Center Foundation (SDHCF) and its mission to provide health and cardiac education to medical professionals and community members.

South Denver Cardiology Associates (SDCA) has been part of the community for the past 51 years. The state-of-the-art health and wellness facility in Littleton is one of the largest independent medical practices in Colorado. It boasts 34 physicians and 20 nurse practitioners specializing in all aspects of cardiology, aside from cardiac surgery.

In 2003, SDCA formed SDHCF to support the greater community. One of the first initiatives was to provide education about various heart situations to emergency medical services (EMS), including the benefit of a cold fluid intravenous line and its ability to decrease the risk for heart damage during a heart attack.

In the foundation’s 20+ years, more and more offerings have emerged. Troy Stockman, CEO of SDCA and the foundation, works collaboratively with Lee MacDonald, M.D., the SDCA and foundation president, to understand community needs and implement solutions. “We are proud of the support we give our neighbors and not-for-profit partners,” said Troy.

Thanks to the SDHCF, many offerings are available: training for the community on hands-only CPR; nutrition and wellness classes; medical professional and EMS education; at-home monitoring equipment for heart failure patients; and Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) donations to high traffic, public nonprofits.

According to Randy Cupps, who has an emergency medical background and has been with SDCA since 1986, there are about 370,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests per year nationally. Eighty percent of those are fatal and four out of five happen at home.

“CPR saves lives,” said Randy, who helps manage SDHCF. He teaches the foundation’s hands-only CPR classes. These classes are short, offered for free and are held once a month.

In one of his recent classes, an attendee in her mid-40s came to the class after suffering cardiac arrest caused by a lethal arrythmia. Her husband provided lengthy CPR until paramedics arrived 20 minutes later. She lived to talk about it and subsequently wanted to learn CPR so she could return the favor to her husband, if ever needed.

SDHCF is all heart when it comes to supporting other nonprofits. Group CPR classes can be held on site or at the SDCA facility and AEDs are often donated as well.

Learn more about South Denver Heart Center Foundation, request an AED or support the foundation with a donation at southdenverheartcenterfoundation.org.  To register for a class, email Randy at rcupps@southdenver.com. The next CPR class is February 18, 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Visit southdenver.com to learn more about the long-standing cardiac health and wellness center that inspired the SDHCF.

Randy Cupps leads a free, hands-only CPR class at the South Denver Heart Center.

 

By Elean Gersack; courtesy photos

CPC

Tags

Recent Stories

Archives