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Los Fresnos residents take recent health event to heart
- Updated: March 6, 2020
By TONY VINDELL / LFN
Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 killer of people in the United States and smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes are some of the main factors that lead to heart attacks.
That’s what nearly 100 people learned during a “Dine and Discovery” event held early this month in the training room of Los Fresnos Emergency Medical Services. The event was hosted by Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville and by the local chamber of commerce.
Attendees heard about the latest on heart disease treatment from Dr. Jaime Silva and got to practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, on two dummies brought in by hospital staff.
Silva, who is a cardiologist, said people should pay close attention when one of the several symptoms of a potential heart attack start to appear. He also advised people to call 911 immediately instead of driving themselves or getting to a hospital on their own.
“It’s very important to know some of the symptoms,” he said, “such as pressure to the chest, sweating and not feeling well.”
Silva said people who lead a sedentary lifestyle are more likely to suffer a heart attack than those who exercise.
Art Garza, CEO with VRMC, said this was the first time they hosted the event in Los Fresnos and promised to be back at least every three months to hold health-related presentations.
He said he was surprised to see such a good turnout.
The last part of the event included getting people in attendance to perform CPC in case they run into a situation where somebody is down and needs assistance.
Val Champion, the chamber executive director, and Los Fresnos Mayor Polo Narvaez, both said it was great to see so many attending such an important presentation.
Narvaez, who lost his mother to a heart attack a while back, said most people have been impacted in one way or another by heart-related diseases.