Charity calls for more people at sporting events to be trained in CPR
Charity Resuscitation Council UK hopes that by having more people trained to respond it'll improve survival rates.
It's been more than three years since footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest, with fans around the world holding their breath as Eriksen's teammates linked arms to hide his fight to survive.
Now new guidance has been released by a leading charity, which is hoped will save lives on the pitch.
Resuscitation Council UK has released 'Field of Play best practice guidelines', which is hoped will be used by teams across Lancashire
The guidelines include:
- Recognising signs of cardiac arrest
- Training and able to perform immediate CPR and prioritise early defibrillation
- Every sporting venue to have best practice emergency plans in place.
The new guidance been broadly welcomed by local coaches in the area. Oliver Portlock, a football coach in Penwortham, says: "I've certainly noticed that at pretty much every venue we play at have defibrillators onsite, but there is always more we can do.
"The training off the field of volunteer coaches, parents and actually of kids themselves can only benefit everyone in the long run.
"When cardiac arrest happens its quite simply a matter of life or death so volunteer coaches have to act quickly, and defibrillators really do ease some of the angst."