Hands for Hearts teaches how to save a life using CPR

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CPR techniques. (Unsplash photo)
CPR techniques. (Credit: Unsplash)

From living and breathing to the brink of death, one man lives to tell about the incident.

“We went to a town hall meeting and that’s the last thing I remember,” Steve Bielecki said. “They said I was a flat-liner. No pulse.”

Bielecki is thankful for a bystander who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him for 12 minutes straight back in October 2018.

It is an exercise that he said everyone should know.

Former Officer Mike Salas, Patti and Steve Bielecki, and Deputy Sheriff Garrett Page reunite for the first time since Steve went into full cardiac arrest. Photo Credit: Sara Ann Mihor / Waushara Argus.

A group in Collier County is working to make sure people living in Southwest Florida know the life-saving skill.

Ashley Mirakian, who is helping to organize an event this Saturday, Hands for Hearts Collier 2019, to teach hands-only CPR, said she wants people to have enough information to feel empowered.

They will be setting up in two locations. One is at Sugden Theater in downtown Naples and the other is at the Golden Gate Community Center.

“We would be thrilled to have 500 people,” Mirakian said.

Hundreds who know the steps should they see someone go down.

“Try to find an AED,” Mirakian said. “Ask for help. Start compressions.”

Compressions that can save a life, just like it did for Bielecki.

“I’m a living example,” Bielecki said. “They can’t believe it. The doctor used the word ‘miracle.'”

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