Local Newborns Get Tiny Hand-Knitted Red Caps For Heart Month
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- February 1st marks the beginning of Heart Month, to raise awareness about the leading killer of Americans both in men and women, and hopefully to reverse that trend. Most people think heart disease is a problem for senior citizens, but the fact is it can strike anyone, even people who are seemingly healthy. That's why doctors say it's so important to know your cholesterol and blood pressure numbers and to keep your weight down.
With the launch of Heart Month, babies born in February are getting special gifts at Main Line Health Hospitals.
Just hours after being born at Lankenau Medical Center, Debbie and Michael Piasecki still hadn't decided what to name their fourth child, born on February 1st - the start of heart month.
"I think it's a fantastic day to be born, frankly," Michael says. All babies born at Main Line Health Hospitals in February will get red caps to raise awareness about heart disease. The campaign is called Little Hats, Big Hearts. Debbie says, "Hopefully, it's a lifetime of good health, good heart health, and a long life."
Lankenau Medical Center Cardiologist Dr. Katie Hawthorne says, "The little red cap is sent home as a reminder to our parents to take care of themselves and think about their own heart health, in addition to the heart health of their family."
But Michael, at the age of 49, already has heart disease and is being treated with cholesterol medication. He says,"I've been working with my doctors to modify my caloric intake and hopefully the next step, besides having four children, is to have a regimen of exercise I can depend on and reduce my girth."
Dr. Hawthorne says those kinds of lifestyle changes can help reduce, and sometimes even prevent, the vast majority of heart disease. She says, "90 percent of heart disease is preventable. That's a huge number, and those are things like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, sedentary lifestyles, smoking. Things that we can prevent."
The red caps also raise awareness about congenital heart disease that affects 1 in 100 babies. It doesn't appear to be an issue for the Piasecki baby boy, who weighed a healthy 9 pounds, 4 ounces.
The red caps were all hand-knitted by volunteers for the American Heart Association. 600 were given to Main Line Health System.
