Defibrillator use and emergency basic life support training
Training to be held in the Institute Saturday 25th January from 10.30 – 12am
Around 30,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside of hospital each year in the UK, and with every minute a person does not receive treatment, their chances of survival decreases by ten per cent.
Cardiac arrest is the most extreme case of an emergency, as the patient loses consciousness at once and there are no signs of life. Defibrillators give an electric shock through the chest wall and help to restore a normal heartbeat.
Just over 5 years ago, as part its work to improve community resilience, Rainow Parish Council decided to fund the purchase and installation of defibrillators and organise a series of training events for local people and groups leaders. We have 3 defibrillators in place through Rainow Village as a result of Parish Council, Holy Trinity Church and local voluntary support. These are located at key sites -in the phone box at Mount Pleasant, at the Church gates and outside the Robin Hood pub. All are accessible at all times and each cabinet has the same key code “C 159X” for entry, which is written on the outside of the box. There is a check of each unit weekly and their condition is reported back to the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS). In the event of a defibrillator being taken from a cabinet, as part of a NWAS coordinated response to an emergency, we are also notified in order that we can check the functionality of the returned unit. This has happened 3 times over the last 5 years but on none of these occasions was the defibrillator actually finally used on a patient. As part of the initial setting up of our defibrillators we also trained over 40 Parishioners in basic life support and use of a defibrillator through the support of NWAS, a local Paramedic and the Bollington First Responder Team.
Following requests from a number of parishioners we are going to hold a refresher course on defibrillator use and emergency basic life support. This is open to everyone and will be held in the Institute from 10.30 – 12am on Saturday 25th January. This is kindly provided by the Bollington First Responder Team. Please come along as the more people who have awareness of these techniques the greater are the chances of survival for anybody who suffers a cardiac arrest.