Kent air ambulance charity encourages CPR training

KentOnline / KMTV

Across the South East, 22 people a day suffer a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital and bystanders knowing how to perform CPR increases the survival rate.

Transcript

00:00 This simple action can save someone's life, a skill everyone should know, but not everyone

00:05 does.

00:06 Which is why tens of thousands across the South East were taught CPR today, including

00:11 Palliswood Primary School in Maidstone.

00:14 Air Ambulance charity Kent, Surrey and Sussex hosted virtual sessions throughout the day,

00:19 teaching thousands the importance of the life skill.

00:22 "You can save lives and if you come past someone you can just save them."

00:27 "I think it's quite easy because all you need to do is press in the middle of their chest

00:33 but it's also quite hard because it must use a lot of strength."

00:37 "You can save lives just by doing a few easy steps."

00:40 "If you were just driving along or walking your dog and you saw someone with a faint,

00:45 you could quickly go over them and save their life."

00:48 "For us personally we know how important CPR is, it saves lives and we know that sometimes

00:53 people don't feel empowered to do it, so today's been all about empowering people and giving

00:58 them the skills they need so that they can save someone's life."

01:01 "Every minute someone goes there's a 10% less chance that they'll survive, which is obviously

01:06 huge so the impact that someone can give is massive before we get to the scene."

01:10 This year so far the Air Ambulance charity have attended more than 200 incidents of cardiac

01:16 arrests, including almost 90 in Kent.

01:20 Steve Harley saved his father's life two years ago with this technique.

01:23 "So my father went to walk his dog, came home and unfortunately collapsed in the garage.

01:29 I only lived a few doors down and managed to find him with my mum.

01:33 As soon as I saw him, unfortunately he was unconscious and not breathing.

01:37 I started CPR pretty soon after.

01:40 I managed to do it for just over 8, 8 and a half minutes until the paramedics arrived.

01:44 I was lucky enough that I had those skills that I had the opportunity to make a difference."

01:49 It wasn't just children taught CPR today, as a recent YouGov survey of 4,000 adults

01:54 across the UK showed a third of them had never learned how to perform CPR, including myself.

02:01 "The key things that we look for is if someone's not breathing, breathing abnormally, so whether

02:06 that be snoring, noisy or long pauses in between breaths, then you need to call 909 and start

02:11 CPR.

02:12 And to do it, it's lovely and simple, so hands on top of each other, fingers interlocked,

02:16 it doesn't matter which hand, arms nice and straight and you're going to put the heel

02:19 of your hand in the centre of the chest."

02:21 "And you said 100 a minute?"

02:24 "Yeah, so about that pace.

02:27 So it's faster than most people think."

02:28 "That's how you do it?"

02:31 "Simple as that."

02:32 Anyone who missed these life-saving sessions can access them on KSS's website and YouTube.

02:39 Sophia Akin for KMTV.

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