Putting ‘lifesavers’ into the community
We are very grateful to the Memorial Hall, at Smithfield Street, Oswestry, for the hall use on Saturday, October 18, at 11am, to run the one and a half hour very practical session to ‘save a life’ using dummies and training defibrillators. After the session attendees will have the confidence and knowledge to do good CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) and how to apply and use a public access defibrillator are available around the town in the wall mounted yellow boxes.
Having people in the community with the knowledge gained from these training sessions are even more important now with ambulance stations closing and ambulances waiting outside hospitals.
The session is delivered by serving and retired Ambulance Service Community First Responders (CFR) who have had the real-life experience of Cardiac Arrest more times than they care to remember! Community First Responders are volunteers with advanced first aid and life-saving training who are now an integral part of the Ambulance system. Because they live in our community, they can be dispatched by the ambulance control to incidents and be at the scene before paramedics and ambulances arrive to sustain life.
Organiser Mike Lade, himself a retired CFR with 15 years' experience with West Midlands Ambulance Service and before that, South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “In a Cardiac Arrest, early recognition the call for help, early CPR and early defibrillation are the first three links in the Chain of Survival. When the heart stops, the brain starts to die at the rate of about 10% per min due to the lack of oxygen – that damage is not repairable. When the persons heart stopped, they had residual oxygen in their blood stream. By starting early CPR, the heart is made to manually pump that oxygenated blood around the brain to extend the time before permanent damage occurs and until a paramedic arrives.”
That is why it’s so important that people are able to do good CPR and know how to apply a defibrillator as soon as possible after the person has collapsed from a cardiac arrest.
The community project aims to train ordinary people in village and church halls, pubs and schools in and around Oswestry on how to become ‘life savers’ in their own communities while the ambulance is on route. After the training session everyone will be equipped with the skills, but more importantly, the confidence of how to use the public access defibrillators now in accessible boxes on walls and in redundant telephone kiosks in the communities.
To book your place for the session (numbers are limited to 15) go to the Facebook page @mikelade and see the link to ‘Save a Life’ page and the registration form or contact Mike on mikelade1975@gmail.com.
No charge is made for these sessions but there will be a donations bucket for voluntary donations and that helps buy new training dummies, training defibrillators and replace consumables etc.
