Nonprofit founded in Avon wants to remind people how easy it is to learn how to save a life
Learning how to do chest compressions and administer an AED is a 'basic skill' that everybody can and should have
Janet Newman/Courtesy photo
One year ago, longtime Eagle County resident Steve Beairsto went into sudden cardiac arrest at the gym. His daughter, Jenna Beairsto, who was working out nearby, started performing chest compressions, a move that likely saved his life.
Jenna had recently been re-trained in CPR through her job at the Eagle River Water & Sanitation District.
To celebrate the anniversary, Steve hosted an event that included a demonstration of how to do CPR and use an AED, led by Janet Newman, director of education with Starting Hearts, a nonprofit founded in Avon.
The event raised money to place a defibrillator on an Eagle County ballfield. The company Beairsto founded, Wire Nut Electric, will do the electrical wiring to make sure the AED works year-round.
“When you put a defibrillator outside in the winter, you have to have it heated or the pads will freeze and it won’t be as effective,” Newman said.
Support Local Journalism
What is cardiac arrest, and why is bystander intervention important?
Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same thing as a heart attack. While a heart attack is a “plumbing problem,” sudden cardiac arrest happens unexpectedly, often through an incident such as choking, drug overdose, a blow to the chest, electrocution, shock, allergies, sudden or great loss of blood, Newman said.
“All cardiac arrest needs to be attended to immediately,” Newman said. “10 minutes after a cardiac arrest of any kind is the outer limit of survival.”
The most prominent indicator of survival for people who experience sudden cardiac arrest is whether they receive immediate care, including defibrillation. While EMS responders like paramedics, EMTs and firefighters are trained in CPR, by the time first responders arrive, a person’s likelihood of survival has already decreased.
“Because EMS cannot usually be available within those 10 minutes, it’s vital for citizens to take action and help a person who is in cardiac arrest,” Newman said.
This includes doing hands-on, good quality compressions and developing a team of bystanders that will retrieve an AED, direct first responders to the patient and assist with compressions.
Only about 40% of cardiac arrest cases that occur outside of hospitals receive care from bystanders.
“I think it’s really important for people to feel brave enough and prepared enough to step in and help, and the only way to do this is through education,” Newman said.
In Denver, the “save rate” for bringing people back from out of hospital cardiac arrest is around 6%, according to Newman. In Eagle County, the save rate is closer to 40%.
Be more informed in 2025.
Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at VailDaily.com/newsletter
“Not every attempt at a save will be successful, but if we don’t do anything, there will be no save,” Newman said.
“Cardiac arrest requires bystander assistance for survival, and this person may be you,” Newman said. “That’s why it’s so important for everybody to be trained, whether they’re five-years-old or 95-years-old, to know what to do.”
CPR is a ‘basic skill’ that everyone can and should learn
In spring 2024, a prominent and beloved community member died of cardiac arrest while playing pickleball in Vail. This inspired Michael Pascal, who organizes EagleVail pickleball, to bring in Starting Hearts host CPR training for EagleVail pickleball players.
“Within 24 hours, I had 75 people signed up,” Pascal said.
Newman said ultimately, she trained 107 people through EagleVail pickleball last summer, then went to Vail pickleball soon after and trained another 70.
“People look at an emergency scene and they go, ‘oh, I’m not qualified,’ and they walk away, or they run away, or they turn away,” Newman said. “What we’re hoping is that people will turn toward the incident so that they can be of help.”
Newman has taught over 5,000 people how to administer chest compressions and use an AED in the six years she has been an instructor with Starting Hearts. “(I) know that what I’m teaching is going to make a difference between saving a life and losing a life,” she said.
Newman was inspired to leave her career as a schoolteacher to work for Starting Hearts when she moved to Eagle County and took a Starting Hearts course to update her Red Cross CPR certification in 2018. “I was so impressed and I was so engaged and learned so much that I decided that was what I wanted to do with my life,” she said.
Starting Hearts offers its one-hour Call.Push.Shock classes to everyone. “It’s so easy that even a kindergartener can help,” Newman said.
The course teaches students how to recognize an emergency, call for help, do good quality chest compressions, and use an AED, a defibrillation machine that talks the user through how to use it once applied.
There are over 400 AEDs throughout Eagle County. “We should have people walking by them and saying, ‘I know how to use that,'” Newman said.
“When we teach CPR, we’re not just teaching the mechanics of doing the compressions and using the AED, but we’re teaching the importance of leadership and teamwork so that people feel that they’re not going to walk away from a situation but instead take action to save a life,” Newman said. “This is one of the basic skills that everybody should have.”
Starting Hearts hosts open classes every month that anyone can join, and groups of six or more can set up private classes at homes or businesses.
“We have a great cadre of fantastic teachers who are very, very dedicated and will work weekends and evenings for the sole purpose of making our community a safer place,” Newman said.
Pascal already has plans to run Starting Hearts trainings for EagleVail pickleball players again this summer. Newman has written a book for young children how to save a life using CPR and an AED, as well as a script for seniors on the same topic.
“It’s not scary, it’s not incredibly time consuming and it could save a life,” Newman said. “The life that you save could be someone walking down the street, or it could be your own family member.”
