Tuesday 16th October was Restart a Heart Day, a Europe-wide initiative developed by the European Resuscitation Council. It was launched in 2013 to teach members of the public how to help restart the heart of someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest.
Chapel St Leonards was one of the schools in Lincolnshire who benefited from the scheme, with volunteers from LIVES delivering safety discussions to EYFS, Year 1, 2 and 3, whilst Year 4, 5 and 6 had CPR training.
LIVES have over 700 volunteers in Lincolnshire, giving up their spare time to respond to medical emergencies as quickly as possible.
Statistics from the charity underpin the importance of responding to a cardiac arrest efficiently, as every minute without help reduces the chance of survival by 10%. CPR, one of the skills taught to pupils at Chapel, helps to keep oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and heart.
Sherri Pruhs-Borrell, Deputy Head of Chapel St Leonards commented: “The training has been invaluable to our children as we live in an area where ambulance response rates are inevitably variable due to traffic and our location.
The very fact that our children now have an understanding of how they could support a person should they ever find themselves in this position.”
Additional information on the LIVES website from Nikki Silver, CEO of LIVES states: “Sadly only 1 in 10 people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Like a lot of other medical emergencies, the potential for saving a life is dependent upon time; the faster help can be obtained the better the chance of survival.
We are dedicated to teaching as many people life-saving CPR, and improving the chances of someone surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest.”
Graham Almond, Headteacher, commented: “The children really enjoyed the training. All the sessions were carefully planned by the LIVES team so that age appropriate sessions could be delivered to the whole school.
It was a fantastic day and everyone went away with either totally new awareness, knowledge and skills, or a refresh on CPR.”
You can find out more information about LIVES on www.lives.org.uk
