Medical students are encouraging fellow classmates and University staff to become more informed about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during a series of training sessions across our campuses today.
Demonstrations will take place at Highfield (Library and the Red Brick area), Boldrewood, Avenue and Southampton General Hospital.
The event marks Restart a Heart Day, led in the UK by the Resuscitation Council, which aims to empower as many bystanders as possible, including non-professionals, to do chest compressions if they see someone having a heart attack.
Research shows that good CPR can be almost as effective as the blood pumping the heart itself. However, the proportion of cardiac arrests in which a bystander attempts CPR, ranges from five to 20 per cent in most countries to more than 60 to 80 per cent in a few countries. If, in all countries, bystanders attempted CPR in at least 50 per cent of cardiac arrests, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved worldwide every year.
The event started with students hearing from people who have either given CPR or received CPR in a time of need, including Professor Diana Eccles, Dean of Medicine.
Professor Eccles gave emergency CPR to a member of the public in an airport after she had got off a flight and saw someone who had collapsed and was pale. She assessed him and started to give CPR. Four other people helped until the ambulance crew arrived 40 minutes later.
Professor Eccles said:
“I am extremely proud of our students. They are no strangers to giving CPR training – they already hold many sessions with schools and colleges in the area – but their fellow peers are a perfect group to teach this extremely important skill.
It is great to see so many staff and students get involved in this very important scheme. We hope that we have made a significant difference to the numbers of people trained this year.”
The event has also received support from ambulance trusts and the British Heart Foundation.
For more information about Restart a Heart Day visit www.resus.org.uk/events/rsah.
