Chances are you wouldn’t. Each year over 30,000 people in the UK suffer a cardiac arrest out of hospital, either in the home, the workplace or anywhere in between. That’s 30,000 opportunities to help save a life.

Cardiac arrest is the ultimate medical emergency and is often witnessed by family members, friends or work colleagues. When someone has a cardiac arrest their heart stops pumping blood around their body and to their brain. The person will fall unconscious and stop breathing, or stop breathing normally. Without help they will die within minutes. However, performing effective and immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can buy time until paramedics arrive and, in some cases, can actually double the chance of survival.

A FACT OF LIFE AND DEATH

In the UK, fewer than one in ten people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest. Yet in Norway, where CPR training is widely available, survival rates are as high as one in four. If the UK achieved the same rates as Norway, we could save the lives of an additional 5,000 people every year.

CREATING A NATION OF LIFESAVERS

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is aiming to create a Nation of Lifesavers. By making CPR training easily available, everyone can gain a life saving skill they can use at work and in the wider community. What’s more, for a company, it means playing an important role, alongside other businesses, schools and volunteers, in a nationwide effort to help save lives.

It’s easy to learn. The BHF’s effective CALL PUSH RESCUE® Training Kit teaches the three simple steps in just 30 minutes. Also, it’s so simple to use that thousands of secondary school children have already learnt these life saving skills. It includes everything you need to get CPR up and running in your workplace. Re-usable, your kit comes in a handy carry-bag with the equipment to teach 10 people at once:

• a Welcome Pack filled with everything you need to get CPR training up and running in your workplace (includes posters, a motivational video, top tips and much more)
• lightweight inflatable and portable manikins
• practice-while-watching training DVDs
• kneel mats for comfort while training
• cleaning wipes.

A LIFE SAVING BUSINESS DECISION

Although CPR forms part of the usual first aid training, many companies have just one qualified first aider. However, as cardiac arrests can happen anywhere, at any time, the first aider might not always be available.

Providing everyone with the opportunity to learn CPR is invaluable. It’s a quick, effective way of equipping them with the following three simple life saving steps:
 

CALL 999 immediately.

PUSH hard and fast on the chest 30 times.

Give two RESCUE breaths.
 

They’ll also learn to keep going until the emergency medical services arrive. Should they choose not to give rescue breaths, the training DVD explains that calling 999 and delivering hands only CPR is much better than doing nothing.

For a one-off cost of just £380 (plus VAT) you can roll out this training across your workplace whenever it suits you and with minimum fuss.

 “THANKS TO CPR I’M STILL ALIVE TODAY”

Angus Nicoll (64) owes his life to two Openreach engineers working in a remote spot. He was out running when he had a cardiac arrest. Luckily, he was spotted by Simon Hibbin and Richard Sellick, both of whom had received CPR training at work.

He wasn’t breathing, his eyes had gone dark and he wasn’t responding. They knew what to do and acted immediately. After calling 999, they performed CPR until the ambulance arrived and, so, helped save Angus’s life. “Thanks to them I’m still alive today”, acknowledges a grateful Angus.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DIE”

Ghayan Briggs’ children were playing at home when, all of a sudden, he heard a thud. Upstairs his six-year-old son, Jadyn, was lying on the floor. He had a blank stare and didn’t look like he was breathing at all.

Ghayan put him straight on his back and started performing CPR – a life saving skill he’d learnt through work. Even though it was his son, he was confident and just kept saying to him, “You’re not going to die today”.

Ghayan kept going until the paramedics arrived along with a defibrillator. Thankfully, his quick thinking and CPR training gave his son the extra precious minutes needed to help save his life.

HELP LEAD A LIFE SAVING REVOLUTION

Angus and Ghayan’s stories are just two of the many where CPR workplace training has already helped save a life. You can help build a Nation of Lifesavers by ordering your CALL PUSH RESCUE® Training Kit online at bhf.org.uk/cprwork 

©British Heart Foundation, a registered charity in England & Wales (225971) and Scotland (SC039426)