According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest each year outside a hospital, and 90% of them do not survive.

There is a nationwide effort to bring those numbers down by mapping locations of automated external defibrillators, better known as a D s, the so-called cardiac crusade has a strong advocate in Lexington.

I had a chance to talk with her earlier this week.

I'm here with Sarah Katz, who has a very personal reason for wanting to increase awareness about Aids.

She's here to share her story.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

So, Sarah, literally five years ago, about this time, you were dead on the streets of Lexington.

Yes, I was.

Tell me your story.

I was dressed as a zombie, getting ready for the thriller parade in front of the Kentucky theater, getting ready to go out behind Michael and Ola.

And I got started on the first version of the dance, and apparently I dropped dead, and people gathered around me and made enough of a scene that a bystander named Charlotte Callan came over to see what was going on, and she had just had gotten certified for CPR.

So she took charge and made sure it was done the correct way, which is compressions only at first.

And she did CPR for ten minutes because the ambulance had trouble getting through the horde of zombies.

I believe there's usually a thousand zombies in 10,000 spectators.

Because this was a zombie parade.

Did people think it was part of the act?

I'm shocked that she would do CPR on me because it is part of the act.

We rise from the dead and start doing our thriller dance.

Yeah.

Had you had any history of heart problems?

No, sir.

None at all.

Which is a good question.

Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, regardless of your health, regardless of your zip code.

Yeah.

And so you were in the hospital about ten days and didn't know what had happened there for a while.

When you did realize what had happened and found out that there was an aide just yards away at the Kentucky theater.

How did that make.

You feel that there wasn't?

We thought there was all this time, but there wasn't.

But Fred Mills, thankfully had one installed just recently, and I went down and mapped it myself on our map.

Okay.

And that's your mission now is to get these aids mapped all over the city.

Tell me about the program that we're calling cardiac cats.

Yes, cardiac cats is my version of the team in Lexington.

The parent organization is Cardiac Crusade.

And he's going across the country, city by city.

Greg Coon is the founder and cardiac cats is.

I thought it would be fun.

Obviously, for obvious reasons in blue and, you know, go cats.

My initial thought was to have a Louisville and Kentucky Med students compete.

Cats versus cards.

Cardiac.

Cats.

Cardiac.

But I haven't gotten expanded that far yet.

I'm focusing on Lexington first, and then hopefully Governor Beshear is supporting this and hopefully we can get more counties involved.

So right now we're working on Lexington.

So through this app called Pulse Point correct.

Point app.

And it's if you search for it on your smartphone, it's in the air in a Gold square registry near registry.

And if you download that app anytime you're out anywhere and you see an ad, it really is as easy as adding a video on YouTube to your account.

And basically, you, you know, you're the blue dot on the map and you line it up with the ad wherever you see it.

You take a picture, you verify the address, and there's a couple of questions you can or cannot answer.

If you can't and you put it on the map.

If you're certified, it's gold and 911 can use it immediately.

And anyone with the app.

If you're not certified, it's gray.

And then my cardiac cats will see that as low hanging fruit.

And they'll run out to verify them because we're giving them practicum and service hours for every as they map they earn an hour.

And how many ads have you been able to identify since you started this?

When I started in January, we had four on the map.

They were at Planet Fitness because they've done theirs all over the country.

We now have about 200.

Just this past few days with the press conference that the mayor had recently.

They have been adding all the ones in city buildings, city owned public places.

And so those are great ones.

And we'll have our volunteers go out.

So I expect to be up by 250 within a couple of weeks.

Okay.

We want to be 1250.

Cities that have done this have taken the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest out of hospital from less than 10% to greater than 60% just by mapping aids.

So the idea is to get to a point where people can just pick up their phone and say, Hey Siri or hey Google, where's the nearest that?

Yeah, and they'll know immediately.

That's exactly what started this.

Greg Kuhn's wife died of sudden cardiac arrest, and he got to thinking, why can't I find the nearest Starbucks, for example?

And and I can't find the nearest CD.

So that's what started all this.

And if we get enough on the enough maps, Google and Apple will talk to us and it will become a push notification so that if you're in Starbucks and there's one at the McDonald's next door, you can find it very, very easily by saying, where's the nearest 80?

Have you found the businesses have been really happy to take part in this once you make them aware.

Well, our kickoff is October 16th at 5 p.m.

at Wessex Brewing.

That is when the those kind of volunteers are going to start hitting the streets and knocking on doors.

So I really haven't had that interaction with the businesses yet.

At the press conference two days ago.

Mayor Gordon did ask all businesses and organizations in Lexington that have an AED to put them on the map, and they will be gray, and then I can send my cardiac cats around to make them gold.

Okay.

And as we say, you're focused on Lexington, but every city in Kentucky ought to be taking part in something.

Absolutely.

And a lot of times, local fire departments just take this on as a volunteer thing.

Sometimes it's just some civic group that wants to do it.

I mean, anybody could do it.

I mean, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts could take this on as a project in Boston and Buffalo.

They had high school civic teachers get classes to do this for credit.

And then the kids, when they would even go on vacation with families, would see them at an airport.

And they did it as like a competition within the class.

We assume that everybody knows what an a D is, but they probably don't.

What it does is deliver a shock to the heart, right?

And can get the rhythm back.

It is the only thing that can bring you back to life.

CPR gives you time, CPR.

You've got to do the CPR.

You've got to call 911.

You need to do CPR.

And then the next thing is you need to find out where the nearest AED is if that person's heart is not beating.

You have to feel so fortunate that you survived this.

Really?

Because it was a long time before the help got to you.

There was an amazing chain of care that got me to where I am.

Absolutely.

I would just love the community to help us out because you never know if you happen to be.

That might be the one that saves your loved one's life.

Yeah.

So just help us download the app and start mapping them.

And you told me you've been part of that thriller dance about 15 years.

Are you going to be there.

This year?

This night?

You're going to be there this year too.

Sir, you can't stop me.

But you have to think about it when you're going down the street.

Each year.

About it is.

A close.

Call of a full circle moment, actually, because I'm very fortunate that I'm able to do it.

Yeah.

What's a very important program?

We're glad you're here to tell us about it.

Thank you for.

Having me.

Thanks for sharing this information.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Bartlett.

You can get more information online at cardiac crusade.org backslash.

Lexington.

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