The American Heart Association will honor Fayette County public safety officials at Thursday's Board of Commissioners meeting for their work saving lives.

AHA Southeast Affiliate President Dr. Mary Ellen Sweeney will present a proclamation to Commissioner Harold Bost, along with a special banner that will be hung in a prominent place to increase the public's awareness of the warning signs of cardiac arrest, and to treat it as a 911 emergency.

One of the meeting's highlights will be an awards presentation to Jodi Busbee for calling 911 and administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation to her father, Ralph Earnest, until emergency medical services arrived to administer defibrillation and literally shock him back to life.

Earnest, a retired Board of Education member, collapsed after a morning jog in 1995 and was found by Jodi. She will receive the AHA's American HeartSaver medal of honor for saving her father's life. Earnest will present the medal to his daughter.

This special recognition is part of the AHA's ongoing national initiative known as Operation Heartbeat, which focuses on sudden cardiac arrest and the chain of survival. Nearly 250,000 Americans die every year of sudden cardiac arrest.

Fayette County's comprehensive medical services system has increased the survival rate from cardiac arrest from 20 to 40 percent, the AHA reported.