Heartbeat: Staying alive – restart a heart goes back to school

November 7, 2019

Cardiac arrests might seem like something you only see on Holby City, but you’d be surprised to hear that there are over 30,000 every single year with a staggeringly low average survival rate of 1 in 10 if they occur out in the community.

Worryingly, statistics highlighted in research carried out by the Resuscitation Council found that less than half of bystanders in the UK would intervene if they witnessed someone collapse. Most stated their lack of ability, confidence or knowledge as being the biggest barrier standing in the way of them providing life-saving interventions.

This month the national restart a heart day campaign launched and focused on out of hospital cardiac arrests. As you would guess, cardiac arrests are indiscriminate and will strike without warning.

The resuscitation team packed their army of resus manikins and set their sights on training pupils at Broadway Academy in Perry Barr in the lifesaving art of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

The team presented their eye opening facts to a sea of 11-19 year old pupils. They followed up with hands on demonstrations with pupils who eagerly took to learning the lifesaving CPR techniques.

Resuscitation Officer, Dawn Martin said, “The key to our work today is to show pupils that they could save someone’s life with a very simple technique. All they have to do is if they find someone unconscious and not breathing is to call for help and begin CPR until help arrives. People have been put off in the past when CPR has been referred to as the ‘kiss of life’. In reality, providing chest compressions in the right way can keep someone alive long enough for help to arrive.

“In the UK we’ve got a long way to go. Our survival rates for cardiac arrest are approximately 10 per cent. In some of our neighbouring Scandinavian countries, the rates are closer to 25 per cent. The biggest difference is that children are taught first aid and CPR from a very young age.”

Hopefully, with their newly acquired lifesaving skills, pupils at Broadway Academy will be able to step in and save a life should they ever need to.