LOCAL INITIATIVE TO BENEFIT COMMUNITY

In support of the annual Restart A Heart Day on October 16^th, Worthing based Safe Mode Ltd First Aid Training held a free special workshop for people across the region.

 

 

RSAH is an annual initiative led by the Resuscitation Council (UK) in partnership with The British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, and Yorkshire Ambulance Service which aims to improve the low numbers of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

 

Owner of Safety Mode Ltd, Kayla Shepherd explained “With heightened awareness of how vital First Aid can be in the first few minutes  – often the difference between survival or not – we fully support Restart A Heart Day and wanted to help increase public awareness of cardiac arrests and increase the number of people trained in CPR in our town.”

 

 

She continued, “As well as the basic training around CPR, breathing and compressions, we covered a number of other topics around spotting the signs and understanding when CPR is relevant.”

 

Kayla’s passion for cascading these life-saving skills grew after her husband Andy Suffered a cardiac arrest in September 2017.  Andy fell unwell while having a swim before work as he normally did, when his heart went into cardiac arrest.  A member of staff at the swimming pool performed CPR and he was taken to hospital. Without the CPR Kayla and her family wouldn’t of been able to spend time with Andy before he passed. 

 

The workshop, held at Heene Community Centre in Worthing, held discussions on:

* Survival rates of cardiac arrests, who have had combination of CPR breaths and compressions and defibrillator delivered.

* Agonal breathing- happens in 40 percent of cardiac arrests and is often mistaken for normal breathing -

* Stance on casualties who have a DNAR- Do not attempt resuscitation

* Fear of hesitation and doing something wrong.

 

The Good Samaritan act ;  Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be, injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated. The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death.

 

Positive feedback from the training, included comments such as “A great confidence booster that reinforces the idea that you should help others if you can.” “Very good session I found it easy to understand and feel more confident.” “Really informative with lots of practical experience. Good to cover children and babies too.”

 

For more information on courses available on many aspects of first aid, visit http://safetymode.co.uk/

or call Kayla on 07818 416448.