Brandon Hospital helps local businesses to support mission during Heart Month

AEDs (automated external defibrillator) save lives. It’s a truth Melanie Brown Culpepper, local hair stylist and founder of Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation, knows all too well. In 2020, her fiancé, Michael Culpepper, died from cardiac arrest at his home. She decided she wanted to honor her fiancé by saving someone else. She started Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation and raised money to place AEDs at local restaurants and establishments, raising funds for the cause through various community events.

“I knew I could raise money and help some people. That was the only way I could heal myself,” said Melanie Brown Culpepper. “I knew in my heart I couldn’t save him that day, but I knew I could save someone else.”

On October 18, 2021, Rebecca Gustafson, patient care technician, started working at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital on the hospital’s cardiac recovery floor. Rebecca is Michael Culpepper’s sister and October 18 was Michael’s birthday. Rebecca’s daughter, Kailyn Leighton, joined the Brandon Hospital family in January 2023.

“Our family went through an unexplainable heartbreak the day we suddenly lost him. I absolutely cannot imagine the horror Melanie felt the day she walked in and found him unresponsive and wasn’t able to help him. We are forever grateful to her for creating this foundation in his honor, and her tireless efforts to raise money for the foundation in hopes of sparing other families the pain we all felt the day we lost him,” said Rebecca Gustafson. “I have had patients who are only here today because there happened to be an AED nearby when they went into cardiac arrest. I see firsthand the lifesaving work the surgeons, doctors, nurses, and the therapists do at our hospital. To know HCA Florida Healthcare is donating to Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation, to help purchase more defibrillators means the world to me.”

Over the last year, Brandon Hospital, a leading hospital provider for cardiac care in the Tampa Bay area, learned about the great awareness Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation has raised in the community and jumped at the chance to join in the efforts of extending lifesaving efforts outside the hospital.

In honor of Heart Month, on February 13 at 1 pm at the HCA Florida Brandon Hospital courtyard at 119 Oakfield Drive, Melanie Brown Culpepper and Rebecca Gustafson shared Michael’s story with caregivers and the community to raise awareness of heart disease. HCA Florida Brandon Hospital leaders presented a check to Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation to support the addition of an AED at a local business in the community.

Speakers at special presentation:

• Brandy Provencher, Cardiac Services Director
• Melanie Brown Culpepper, creator of Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation
• Tripp Owings, CEO, HCA Florida Brandon Hospital
• Brittany Rendon, American Heart Association

Caregivers, community members and media were invited to attend as we joined together on the mission to raise awareness to the leading cause of death in the United States, heart disease.