BALTIMORE — Singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley's only daughter, just attended the 80th Golden Globes with her mom Tuesday, two days later she died hours after being hospitalized following an apparent cardiac arrest.
After appearing healthy at the awards, her sudden death highlights the importance of paying close attention to heart health.
At 54 years old the princess to the man celebrated as "the king of rock 'n' roll," died Thursday.
She launched her music career in 2003 and celebrated her dad's legacy on the big screen in the hit movie 'Elvis' just last week.
Her death was a source of shock and heartbreak to many of her fans.
Aside from grieving the death of her son by suicide, she had no publicly known issues with her heart, a trend doctors say we've been seeing more since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've seen a lot of healthy young folks getting heart attacks that don't have any other comorbidities. No diabetes, hypertension, they're at optimal weight. They don't have high cholesterol," said Dr. Kahl Shehadeh.
Shehadeh established Khal's CPR with hopes of equipping more people with CPR training.
"If somebody knows what they're doing, they train well. They do high-quality CPR. They do it properly. They do it in time and they get them to Advanced Care in time, that has a very high chance of keeping someone alive," he added.
He says part of the training is knowing the signs, symptoms and difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest [is] when somebody's heart stops and they stop breathing, become unconscious and that's when they need CPR," Shehadeh explained.
Heart attacks, he says, remain the most prevalent cause of cardiac arrests.
"A heart attack is a blockage of an artery in the heart that makes the heart, or a portion of the heart starves for oxygen, so they get no oxygen or perfusion for that portion of the muscle so it's not dead yet. It could lead to death," he continued.
"We are going to do chest compressions, keep pumping the heart to keep the blood delivering oxygen to the person's body. You want to reinstate the lungs, you deliver a breath," he said.
He believes equipping our loved ones with the necessary training in CPR could be a matter of life and death.
Next week Khals CPR launches a free program 'Khals Lay rescuers training initiative' where he aims to train about 10,000 people this year.
It's for non-medical professionals looking to learn CPR as a skill to spread both awareness and provide life-saving skills.
For more information about the initiative visit: https://www.khalscpr.com/
