The American Heart Association is proud to have Brian McKee serving as the 2014 Long Island Heart Walk “Red Cap” Ambassador. This year’s Long Island Heart Walk will be taking place on Sunday, September 21 at Jones Beach.
Brian McKee is a former New York City police officer, a husband, a father of three young children and a survivor of a cardiac arrest. On March 5, 2013, Brian was working out with his partner in the NYC Police Academy training for a Spartan race at Citi Field. Part of their workout involved climbing the stairs. When they reached the basement of the academy, Brian grabbed his knees, collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. His partner immediately started CPR and called for help.
Luckily for him, there was a police officer in the building trained to use an AED which was located in the hallway of the building. After shocking him 4 times, Brian’s heart beat returned. Brian considers himself very lucky to have survived and credits that survival to the fact that his partner was trained in CPR and that there was an AED easily available. The AED that saved his life was only installed 4 year prior, a fact that Brian thinks about constantly. Brian is proud to serve as the 2014 Long Island Heart Walk Red Cap Ambassador and hopes to help raise awareness and support for CPR training and increased availability of AED’s.
A “Red Cap” is a red baseball cap featuring the American Heart Association logo. “Red Caps” refer to survivors of heart attack, cardiac arrest or heart surgery who wear the red caps as a symbol of their survival while walking in the Heart Walk. “White Caps” will be distributed to stroke survivors the day of the walk. Pediatric cardiovascular disease survivors will receive red super hero capes to acknowledge their courage. Hundreds of survivors from across Long Island participate to show that heart disease and stroke can be beaten.
The American Heart Association estimates there are more than 71 million Americans alive with one or more types of cardiovascular disease.
As Red Cap Ambassador for the Long Island Heart Walk, Brian will help create awareness about the importance of survivors participating in the event and to create awareness that heart disease and stroke aren’t “just an older man’s diseases.”
On Sunday, September 21, 2014, join our “Red Cap” Ambassador and thousands of other survivors, families and friends from all over Long Island at the Long Island Heart Walk at Jones Beach, Field 5.
The annual success of the Long Island Heart Walk is due in part to national sponsor, Subway. Local sponsors include TD Bank, Astoria Bank, Vita Coco, Cohn Reznick, EVO Payments Intl., Winthrop University Hospital, Luxottica and Catholic Health Services. Local media sponsors are News 12 Long Island, WBAB 102.3-FM and WBLI 106.1-FM.
For more information about the Long Island Heart Walk taking place on Sunday, September 21 call the American Heart Association at 516-450-9104 or visit us at www.longislandheartwalk.org
Good news, thanks AHA.