Luton Fire Station Restart a Heart event highlights the importance of life-saving skills
Paramedics and firefighters showed members of the community how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator
As part of the national Restart a Heart initiative, Luton Fire Station yesterday hosted a community event aimed at raising awareness about the importance of CPR and defibrillator use.
The event, which brought together members of the public and emergency services, helped showcase the life-saving significance of knowing these critical skills.
With first responders sent to the scene of various emergencies, these skills are known by all emergency service workers, but not enough members of the public are equipped to respond to emergencies.
Rob Davis, Station Commander at Luton Fire Station, said: "It's becoming more and more important in our role today because there's more and more cardiac arrests happening.
"The awareness for such an event is paramount to the overall survival rate of people."
According to Davis, this joint effort reflects the essential need for shared knowledge between emergency services.
"It should also give the public and the communities more confidence that they've actually got trained individuals that are able to assist in such an event," Mr Davis added.
Assisted by paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service, visitors were given the opportunity to practice CPR on three dummies, before being demonstrated how to place defibrillator pads on a chest and shock an individual.
Paramedic Jennifer Geary said: "Cardiac arrest is our worst emergency that we can attend as the ambulance service, and it's one of the worst emergencies that you could be faced with as a member of the public.
"It's very heavily evidence-based that early recognition, early CPR, and defibrillation is what saves lives in cardiac arrest.
"It's better to do something than to do nothing. These patients are really poorly, and you can do no harm—only good."
The event attracted a diverse range of participants, from young children to adults, all eager to learn.
"Some have been really young—four years old and up—which was really cute. Even then, we can still talk through the basics with children because we don’t want them to be afraid," added Ms Geary.
Paramedic Richard talked us through how best to prepare for CPR: "So we come down, and check if we can feel any breath on our cheek, if we can hear them breathing, and we look at their chest.
"We do that for 10 seconds and we expect to have two respirations in the 10 seconds.
"If they're not breathing, the next thing you must do is phone 999, ask for the ambulance service, and the first thing the the person the other end will say is 'hello, ambulance service. Is the patient breathing?' If you say 'no they're not breathing' they will start prompting you to give them information.
"They will say start CPR, but before you start you can check if there's people around to call for help.
"If somebody comes you can ask them if to locate a defibrillator and bring it back, while you do chest compressions."
According to the Resuscitation Council, there are more than 100,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the UK, yet fewer than one in 10 people survive, while CPR is said to double the chance of survival.
With events like Restart a Heart Day, Luton Fire Station and the East of England Ambulance Service hope to continue empowering local residents with the knowledge and confidence to act in life-threatening situations.