Stroke, heart attack care focus of ‘Lobby Day’ on May 30Date: 5/22/2019 BOSTON – Luke Perry was 52. John Singleton was 51. Stroke took both of these famous men, and during American Stroke Awareness Month, their deaths are a stark reminder that this “brain attack” can strike anyone, anytime.
“People think, ‘it’s my grandparents, or maybe my parents [who might have a stroke], but never that its going to be you or your child,” said Allyson Perron Drag, Government Relations director for the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Heart Association (ACH). “But the numbers are getting higher in the young. We haven’t halted heart attack or stroke due to a number of factors.”
Those factors – including appropriate stroke care, faster CPR phone instructions, youth tobacco use and phys. ed. in schools – are about to get a big push, Drag said, during the Chapter’s annual Heart on the Hill Lobby Day at the State House on May 30.
The annual event brings stoke and heart attack survivors, caregivers, family members and other AHA volunteers to Boston to lobby state representatives and senators for increased emphasis on stroke and heart attack related issues. The goal is to make legislators aware of how important these issues are to constituents.
“We have been doing some form [of Lobby Day] for at least 14 or 15 years and it has certainly grown over that time,” Drag shared. “For at least the past 10 we have had a stroke specific day, or a focus on stroke.”
One of the goals for this year’s Lobby Day is to advocate for a stroke-specific system of care, Drag said. “In Massachusetts, when you suffer a stroke, you go to the closest hospital; we want you to go to the most appropriate [facility],” Drag explained. “We want to set up a system where EMTs in the field can determine stroke severity and what level of care you need.”
Though most strokes can be effectively treated at the nearest facility, Drag said 12 to 15 percent are at a “higher severity and need a higher level of care” and the AHA wants to see a tiered treatment system established to help prevent unnecessary deaths and long-term disability among stroke sufferers.
Another area of concern that Lobby Day will focus on is the response time for phone-based CPR instruction in a cardiac event, Drag said.
“We want to look at the 911 system in the state,” she said. “What happens now when you call [for an ambulance] from a cell phone, you go to the State Police first, then to the regional EMS system, then [the call] usually goes to a local emergency unit.” Drag said when someone suffers sudden cardiac arrest you are supposed to get hands-on CPR instructions from the emergency personnel you reach, but with calls going through several connections – each of which usually asks the same questions – those instructions are often delayed critical minutes, which can mean a difference between life and death. With “about 90 percent” of 911 calls now made on cell phones, “we are trying to streamline that system,” Drag said.
Other concerns that the May 30 Lobby Day plan to raise are the sale of tobacco products to young people – especially the flavored type – the continued overconsumption of sugary drinks in the light of the obesity epidemic and the lack of “quality physical education” for youth in modern school systems.
Drag said individuals interested in participating in this year’s Lobby Day, which includes a morning training session before volunteers meet with legislators, can register at /www.heart.org/en/affiliates/massachusetts/welcome-to-massachusetts. For those who can’t attend Lobby Day in person, Drag said there is an option to participate through online advocacy on the Massachusetts Chapter’s website.
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