European Restart a Heart day – Part 1

Today is ‘Restart a heart day’ across Europe and we intend to go back to basics and talk a little a bit about what you can do to help save someone’s life in an emergency and how this helps them recover from a cardiac arrest.

60,000 people suffer cardiac arrests (SCA) in the UK every year, bystander CPR figures are relatively low, a mere 1 in 3 have CPR skills before an ambulance arrives. Because of this, less than 12% of people survive a cardiac arrest.

**did you know that if CPR is performed and defibrillator is used inside 5 minutes of someone suffering a cardiac arrest, their survival chances increase from 6% to 74%?**

Chain of Survival

So you’ve seen someone collapse at work and you think they’ve suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, you’re not sure what to do first and you don’t know if there is a defibrillator on site, what do you do?

1 – Call for help; If you can get an extra pair of hands to help you out, this will help immensely – they can find a defibrillator or first aid kit, they can call for an ambulance whilst you’re tending to the casualty.

2 – Check breathing; If they’re unconsciously and have erratic/not breathing then it’s time to start CPR (30 compressions and 2 rescue breaths or constant compressions).

3 – Defibrillator; It doesn’t matter if you’re unsure as to whether the casualty has suffered a cardiac arrest, the defibrillator will analyse the patient and decide it electro shock therapy is required. If it does, follow the visual/audio instructions provided by the unit.

4 – Information; When the emergency services arrive to look after the casualty, you must tell them everything you know about the patient, that you performed CPR and used a defibrillator.

5 - Post resuscitation care; Once the first responder has preserved life until the emergency services arrive; it’s their job to make sure the patient continues in the recovery process with the best possible care and further treatment.

More information

If you like to read some more information regarding defibrillators, cardiac arrest and everything in between, why not check out our FAQ page which is packed full of informative videos related to your heart health.

You can visit the European Resuscitation Council’s ‘Restart a Heart’ Page here.Learn more about defibrillators