Oxfordshire nurse "wants to build a nation of lifesavers" by learning CPR
Statistics show around 1 million people are living with cardiovascular disease in the South East
A nurse from Oxfordshire says she "wants to build a nation of lifesavers" by encouraging people to learn CPR, as figures show only one in 10 people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the South East of England.
The survey of more than 4,000 people also shows that four in 10 (43%) of couples wouldn’t feel confident performing CPR if someone had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, according to new data released by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
"Doing something is better than doing nothing at all"
Around half of people (51%) who live with their partner say the fear of causing harm would make them reluctant to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if someone had a cardiac arrest in front of them.
Ruth Goss, Cardiac Nurse for BHF from Banbury, said: “We people might be feeling that they're doing more harm than good, but without the CPR, they won't survive, so they will die. It’s better to have a sore chest or broken ribs and live, than the other outcome.”
“It is scary, and we really do hear that, I know that people don't want to hurt someone, but if it's your loved one or anyone on the street, just anyone, you could be that person that saves their life”, she added.
The charity also hopes the findings empower everyone to take action in the event of a cardiac arrest, as if CPR isn’t attempted, the person will die.
Ms Goss said: “Encouraging people to learn this life saving skill, is giving the person who's in cardiac arrest, the best chance of survival. We really want to emphasise that although it feels scary, doing something is absolutely better than doing nothing at all.”
She added: "I'm really passionate to just build a nation of lifesavers. We want people to have that confidence.”
Despite over a fifth of those surveyed saying they had seen someone have a cardiac arrest in front of them, almost a third (31%) have still not received any CPR training.
Across the UK, there are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year.
BHF’s free online tool RevivR is aiming to teach CPR skills in 15 minutes, using just a mobile phone or tablet and a cushion.