11th October 2018
Would you know what to do if someone suffered a Cardiac Arrest in front of you? The answer is simply to phone 999 and start CPR until help arrives. Early CPR and early defibrillation greatly increase the chances of survival for anyone who suffers cardiac arrest.
Restart a Heart Day is an annual event where the general public are encouraged to learn this vital life saving skill. We know that many people have doubts about starting it and are fearful of giving it a go – in fact a recent survey showed that 33% of adults in NI would not try CPR if someone collapsed with Cardiac Arrest in front of them. We also know that if nothing is done, the patient will die. In fact for every minute that goes by the chances of survival decrease by 10%.
We are asking you to give learning CPR a go. You will never know when you might need to use it. Most Cardiac Arrests happen in the home – not in a public place. So it could be your parent, brother, sister, son or daughter who might need you to leave all those fears and doubts behind and do something.
The video below tells the story of how one Co Antrim man, who had previously been fit and healthy, suffered a Cardiac Arrest at home. He survived. But what played a key part in his survival was the fact that CPR and defibrillation were started immediately by a local man who had taken time to learn these life-saving skills and cares enough about his local community to volunteer to be on call for the Ambulance Service as a Community First Responder. He saved a life and what better feeling could there be than that?