“Thank you, Racing Hearts”

Racing Hearts is a life saver.

In just ten years they’ve more than 1,000 life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) within Santa Clara County, and they’ve made Santa Clara County the first county in California to have defibrillators in virtually all public schools. It’s an outstanding example of the good that non-profits and government can do when we work hand in hand.

And what a journey it’s been.

Two decades ago, Stephanie Martinson was out climbing Yosemite’s Half Dome when she suffered an aborted sudden cardiac arrest. She was just 23 years old.

Stephanie was not the first young adult, and she won’t be the last, to experience sudden cardiac arrest. We hear too many stories of otherwise healthy people collapsing suddenly. Maybe it’s a student at sports practice, or a friend at work, or a neighbor at a farmer’s market. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack, but it’s just as dangerous. Instead of a blockage, it’s an electrical disturbance that stops the heart beating correctly.

After her ordeal, Stephanie was inspired to do something. In 2012, she founded Racing Hearts with a clear mission: to increase the survival rate of persons suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. How would she and her team do this? By placing AEDs in easy to access locations in the community and by teaching people how to use them.

An AED is a small but powerful device. It uses electrical pulses to reset the heart, like turning a frozen computer off and on again. AEDs can raise the chances of survival from five percent up to eighty percent. They can be the difference between life and death.

In 2014, I proposed that Racing Hearts partner with our Board of Supervisors, the City of Mountain View, El Camino Health, and local school districts to place 49 AEDs in public locations throughout Mountain View. Later, Racing Hearts, the County, and El Camino Health collaborated with then-State Senator Jerry Hill and then-Assemblymember Rich Gordon to update California legislation to make it easier to own and maintain AEDs.

Then, in 2015, following the success of the Mountain View pilot, the Board of Supervisors allocated $500,000 in matching funds to get even more AEDs out into the community. By 2018, Santa Clara County was the first county in California to have AEDs in virtually all public schools.

Racing Hearts has now placed more than 1,000 AEDs in Santa Clara County – a triumph, to put it simply.

After completing their mission to raise awareness and blanket our community with life-saving AEDs, Racing Hearts’ journey recently has come to a natural close. I am honored to have worked with Racing Hearts from day one and I hope the Racing Hearts story continues to inspire partnerships between non-profits, local organizations, and government.

Thank you, Racing Hearts; you’re a life saver.

Joe Simitian
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

This article was originally published in Los Gatos Living and Saratoga Spotlight in February 2023.