Inspiration: Heartbeat

The heart is a fascinating thing....  Its physical anatomy is very different to the stereotypical heart shape.  It is apparently simple but hugely complicated.  A pump with several chambers made from muscle.  It's easy to think it resides on the left of the chest but it sits in the middle, nestled between two lungs.  Wikipedia has some great pictures and animations. 

The hearts complicated manoeuvres are coordinated by electrical pulses to the different parts of the heart and give us the familiar heart trace that is the focus of the heartbeat design.  The rhythm is so complicated that while a heart in distress may be obvious on an ECG, it also, may be really difficult to identify.  These days defibrillators are very clever and they analyse the the heart rhythm and decide when to shock.  

There has been a huge community push to make sure there are defibrillators easily accessible.  In many small villages you can see them in accessible locations, sometimes in repurposed telephone boxes.  Communities, businesses and individuals have all come together to raise funds for a local defibrillator.  One such business is the Golden Lion, a beautiful pub situated on the shores of Stithians reservoir in Cornwall.  These community defibrillators give people the best chance at surviving a heart attack because the speed with which people receive treatment is a huge factor in their chances of survival.  Every minute counts and the closest defibrillator is now likely to be in your community, rather than in a hospital or ambulance.

I believe CPR is something that should be taught in schools and I have taken the opportunity to take first aid training on a number of occasions.  The British Heart Foundation campaign was great because it was fun and memorable, an inspired advert!  The benefit of adverts like this cannot be underestimated.  Tristin Saghin was nine when he saved his baby sister by performing CPR which he had learnt by watching TV.

My heart was on my mind when I came up with the idea for the Heartbeat bracelet.  I wanted to focus on a healthy heart and what that looked like.  It took me a little while to work out how to do that using peyote stitch, to give a result I was happy with.  It was an interesting challenge!

My pinterest board is here.