Cardiac CATS Lexington AED Mapping Campaign

Sarah's Story
On October 24, 2021, Sarah Katzenmaier—a Halloween enthusiast and retired IBMer—was dressed as a zombie in her royal blue bridesmaid dress, getting ready to perform in downtown Lexington’s annual Thriller Parade. Standing in front of the Kentucky Theatre, she rose up from the street ready to dance when she suddenly suffered a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) caused by a dangerous heart rhythm and collapsed.

The Rescuers and Chain of Survival

• Charlotte Callan (Bystander & Primary Hero): Charlotte Callan, a UK HealthCare employee sitting nearby on the sidewalk watching the parade, immediately rushed over. When well-meaning bystanders panicked and tried to sit Sarah up, thinking she was choking, Callan took charge of the scene. She checked Sarah’s airway, confirmed she wasn’t choking, and insisted on starting immediate, continuous CPR compressions. Callan maintained high-quality chest compressions for roughly 10 minutes amidst a crowded, hectic environment until paramedics arrived.

• Lexington Fire & EMS Team: The responding EMS team carefully navigated through the dense crowd of parade-goers and dancing zombies to reach Sarah. They took over emergency care, loaded her into an ambulance, and transported her to the hospital. Meanwhile, Callan secured Sarah's dropped phone and handed it to a police officer so her family could be located.

• Dr. Vedant Gupta & the UK HealthCare ICU Team: Sarah was brought to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital. Under the care of cardiologist Dr. Vedant Gupta and his team, Sarah survived the critical post-cardiac arrest period. Dr. Gupta noted that only around 8% of people experiencing the type of event Sarah had survive, emphasizing that Callan’s immediate bystander CPR was the single most decisive factor in saving her life.

Aftermath and Recognition

Sarah spent 10 days in the ICU and continued her physical recovery through the UK HealthCare cardiac rehabilitation clinic supervised by Jacob Stone.

On February 17, 2022, Sarah and Charlotte met face-to-face for the first time at a ceremony where Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton officially proclaimed it "Charlotte Callan Day". Dressed in honor of her survival, Sarah joked about being grateful to be a "real-life zombie now and not just a dress-up zombie." Inspired by her second chance at life, Sarah became a dedicated advocate for CPR education and mandatory CPR training in schools.

======================================================================================

Sponsors

UK HealthCare
UK HealthCare is the academic health system of the University of Kentucky, serving Lexington and the surrounding communities since 1962 with more than 80 specialized clinics, 140+ outreach programs, and over 9,000 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and health care workers throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and their deep commitment to ensuring every Kentuckian has access to the highest quality care makes them a natural champion of the mission to put life-saving AEDs on the map across the Bluegrass State.

UK HealthCare Gill Heart & Vascular Institute
UK HealthCare Gill Heart & Vascular Institute is the region's most comprehensive cardiovascular program, working to combat Kentucky's high rate of heart disease — one of the highest in the nation — through a large network of affiliate hospitals across the Commonwealth to enhance access to high-quality cardiovascular care and ensure Kentuckians receive the right care in the right place at the right time, and their unwavering dedication to saving and extending the lives of heart patients across Kentucky makes their partnership with Cardiac Crusade a powerful alignment of purpose and passion.

City of Lexington
The City of Lexington — officially the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government — is the governing body of the Horse Capital of the World, serving more than 300,000 residents through a deep and comprehensive commitment to public safety, community health, and quality of life, with a public safety mission dedicated to keeping Lexington a safe place to live, work, and play, and their partnership with Cardiac Crusade reflects a city government that understands the most important thing a community can do is ensure its residents have every possible tool to survive a medical emergency — starting with knowing where the nearest AED is.

Northside Neighborhood Association
The Northside Neighborhood Association is Lexington's oldest neighborhood association, founded in 1961 to preserve the heritage, strengthen community connections, and improve the quality of life for all residents of one of the city's most historic districts — a neighborhood whose boundaries encompass generations of Lexington history and whose all-volunteer board has spent more than six decades proving that the people who care most about a community are the ones who live in it, making their support of AED mapping a natural expression of the same neighbor-helping-neighbor spirit that has defined the Northside since its founding.

The Lexington Legends
The Lexington Legends are Central Kentucky's professional baseball team, playing to delight fans and entertain hundreds of thousands of Lexingtonians each year at Legends Field, and as an organization built on the belief that baseball belongs to the community — and that the Legends belong to Kentucky — their support of the mission to map AEDs across the Bluegrass reflects a team committed to keeping the people of Lexington not just entertained, but safe.

Cardiac CATS!: Putting AEDs on the Map
Cardiac Cats: Put AEDs on the Map is a Cardiac Crusade initiative born in the heart of Bluegrass Country, uniting the passion of Kentucky's most devoted fans with a mission that hits close to home — ensuring that every arena, every tailgate, and every corner of the Commonwealth has a findable, registered AED ready when it's needed most, because Big Blue Nation takes care of its own.

West Sixth Brewing
West Sixth Brewing is an award-winning craft brewery founded in 2012 in a historic 100-year-old Lexington bread factory, with a charitable arm — West Sixth for a Cause — that has donated over $1,000,000 to Kentucky nonprofits supporting causes from hunger relief to outdoor access, and as a company whose founders pledged from day one to give at least six percent of annual proceeds back to their community, their partnership with Cardiac Crusade is a natural expression of a brewery that has always believed making great beer and doing great good go hand in hand.