In response to recent statistics revealing a decrease in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rights (OHCAO), the Scowerdons Community Centre is preparing to host its second free training event this year.
The event aims to improve people’s confidence about using the life-saving skills and address the fears associated with administering CPR or using a defibrillator.
Stephen Smith, Training Director and First Aider for Community Heartbeat said,”There are 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year and when someone has a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR or a defibrillator reduces their chances of survival by ten per cent.”
Scheduled for the 22nd of April the event will offer up-to-date training on how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator, as well as outlining new guidance around the topic.
Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, and a defibrillator delivers a dose of electric current to the heart.
Jayne Mason, the community leader of Scowerdons Community Centre and training organiser, started her mission to get a defibrillator in her local community after noticing the demand from one she looked after at her local pub.
She said that “The electricians who came and installed the cabinet for us the other day, they had family members who needed their hearts restarted by a defibrillator.”
The first training session fell soon after the installation of the new defibrillator, and was really well received with around 40 people in attendance.
With other recent findings revealing that more people are reluctant to perform CPR on women than men, due to discomfort and fear, the training will also take proactive steps to address the concerns.
These steps include embracing the ‘bra off defib on’ campaign as women’s chance of survival is being reduced due to their bras being left on.
Ian Weeks used to work for the East Midlands ambulance service as an ECA (Emergency Care Assistant) and said “It’s a regular thing that defibrillators are used and it’s fairly successful.”
Since then he has campaigned to fit more defibrillators in the Peak District, after noticing that the response time to the area was quite slow.