16th October is Europe’s first Restart a Heart Day, which is aimed at educating younger people about the benefits of learning and, if necessary, practicing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Every year, around 350,000 Europeans suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. OHCAs occur anywhere, for example in the street, at work, while exercising or doing other strenuous activity. But the vast majority happen in the home.
Of these a mere 10% survive and to put this into context it is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing without survivors every day of the year.
To mark this important day and encourage young people to learn the technique, the Resuscitation Council (UK) is sending every secondary school in the UK a DVD of LIFESAVER, an interactive film.
The excellent DVD is supported by a lesson plan to aid discussion of the film and the issues featured in it. Pupils will learn by doing – if they do it wrong, they will see the consequences. Do it right and they will sense the thrill of saving a life.
We strongly recommend that everyone should view the online Lifesaver video. It could make all the difference if you are present at an incident of cardiac arrest.