In recognition of National Heart Month, newborns at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, Dyersburg Hospital, and Volunteer Hospital in Martin, TN will be doing their part to promote heart health. The “Red Hats for Healthy Hearts” campaign is a collaborative effort between the West Tennessee Heart & Vascular Center and the West Tennessee Women’s Center. Throughout the month of February, newborns will receive special red hats, instead of the traditional pink and blue striped hats, to raise awareness on the importance of heart health from birth.
Deena Kail, Executive Director of the West Tennessee Women’s Center said, “The ‘Red Hats for Healthy Hearts’ campaign is one of our favorite events of the year. The initiative allows us to bring awareness to an important issue impacting so many lives.”
“As pediatric cardiologists, we focus the majority of our efforts on the diagnosis and surgical care of heart defects, which are the most common type of birth defect impacting up to eight out of every 1,000 infants born each year,” said Donald Moore, M.D., MMHC, associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and a cardiologist at Ayer’s Children’s Medical Center in Jackson. “Equally important, however, are the threats of developing cardiovascular risk factors as an adult, many of which begin in childhood, and are shared within families and are modifiable. This risk makes awareness campaigns, such as this one, invaluable to communities.”
Heart disease is the number one killer of women ages 20 and over, taking the life of one in four women each year. More women die from heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases than men.
“The ‘Red Hats for Healthy Hearts’ initiative is a distinctive approach to increase awareness to cardiovascular health. At West Tennessee Heart & Vascular Center, we want to do all that we can to protect our patients’ hearts. Raising awareness from birth on cardiovascular health is a great way for us to accomplish this goal,” said Deann Thelen, Chief Executive Officer of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.
