Health Experts Urge Education, Community Partnerships to Offset Racial Disparities in CPR Rates

In August 2021, Dr. Bryan O. Buckley — a member of the board of directors for the American Heart Association’s Greater Washington Region — helped save a man’s life by administering CPR when he collapsed suddenly along Three Notch Trail in St. Mary’s County. Buckley recalled that Christopher Holton, a Black man in his early 50s, went into cardiac arrest on the trail. Holton was “gasping for air,” Buckley said, and while there were other bystanders around at the time, no one came forth to try to provide first aid. Buckley said he had last performed CPR some 10 years ago at the time.