Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a vital life-saving skill, and the Irish Heart Foundation is sending CPR kits to every Transition Year student in the country
THE FIRST FEW moments are critical. If a person suddenly collapses with cardiac arrest the actions of those around them in the first four minutes after it happens will often be the difference between life and death.
The quick thinking of people with CPR training has meant they could save the lives of those close to them. If you’re ever unlucky enough to have to use the training, statistics show that it is most likely to be one of your “nearest and dearest” who needs CPR. First Aid training, of which CPR is part, is offered in many TY programmes. While such training is still the best way to learn about CPR, the new Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) kits will mean people can learn at home. It includes a mini blow-up mannequin, a 25-minute DVD and booklet.
TY students from Moyne Community School in Longford were some of the first to try them out as part of a Young Social Innovators project in 2007. “We all got a kit each to bring home and then we used our training to teach other students and have public meetings in our area to create awareness,” explains Moyne CS student Alison Kenny, now in sixth year. “We generated a lot of interest. More people need to know how to do CPR.”
With an estimated 5,000 people dying from sudden cardiac arrest every year (up to 100 of these deaths occur in those aged 35 or younger), increased CPR training is the best way to curb such figures. Teacher Rose Uí Shúilleabháin of Maria Immaculata Community College in Cork put her training to good use on one of her students involved in a schools cross country championship in 2008. “He was 14, a fit young fellow,” she says. “It’s very normal for boys to throw themselves on the ground at the end of a race so I didn’t panic as I was going over to him. However, it soon became obvious this wasn’t the norm. So somebody rang the ambulance and I started CPR immediately. I had redone my training six weeks before, so thankfully it was fresh in my mind.”
Uí Shúilleabháin’s actions kept the boy breathing until someone came with a defibrillator. “I continued CPR for around five or six minutes before the ambulance came. It was the longest five minutes of my life – every single second dragged on and on until he finally gagged and drew a breath.”
Panic can make it difficult to react helpfully in emergency situations like this. If it wasn’t for the training, Uí Shúilleabháin would not have been so cool under pressure. “The best hope for the panic is the training,” she says. “You tend to lose the power of normal thinking in these situations, particularly because it tends to be on your nearest and dearest, not strangers, that you do CPR. If you know it by rote, however, it will come to you.”
THE THOUSANDS OF TY students with their very own kits are now going to serve as disciples and spread the skill of CPR to their families. “Research in Denmark tells us that 2.5 people learn from each kit sent out to individual students,” explains Brigid Sinnott, basic life support coordinator for the IHF. “In total it will cost the IHF €687,500. We’re 90 per cent funded by donations, though, so the public are really paying for them. If people make a donation they are contributing directly back into their community. We have made contact with the 550 schools with TY. None are obliged to but we are asking schools to fundraise to help pay for the kits.”
The students in Moyne CS are fundraising through bag-packing, table quizzes and other such events. This is not the first time they have had to fundraise for local hearts. “We raised money to buy a defibrillator in TY,” says student Colleen Norris (18). They cost approximately €1,500. It took us the whole year to raise the money through table quizzes, sponsorship from local communities and also from the parents’ association.”
Because of sudden deaths among youths in recent years, the defibrillator has become a more common accessory on the sidelines of sports pitches and racetracks across Ireland. However, until that apparatus can be brought to a sudden collapse victim, CPR training is the best way to keep them breathing. The new IHF kits will, therefore, mean more people with the necessary skills will be in the right place at the right time.
“The DVD is very quick and very concise,” says Sinnott. “Many people think performing CPR is difficult, that it’s something only a medical person could do. We’re trying to take the fear out of CPR.”
According to all who were interviewed, the new CPR kits are very straightforward and easy to use. “My son, who’s 13 years old, couldn’t wait to inflate the mannequin and put the DVD into the PlayStation,” says Uí Shúilleabháin. “In 25 minutes he had it all done. It’s a very teenage-friendly format.”
The more students in the know, the more people who might survive the unmentionable. “If you can get to someone who has collapsed immediately after it happens, you double their chances of survival,” says Sinnott. “For every minute after they collapse their chances of survival decrease by 10 per cent.”
There is, in this age of lawsuits, the reluctance to help those who collapse for fear of being accused of trespass or, indeed, making things worse. “People should not have such fears,” says Sinnott. “If a person is awake then it could be considered to be trespass. But if they are not conscious, then it is OK. Besides, nobody in the world has been successfully sued for doing CPR.
“In addition, it’s important to remember it’s not possible to make things any worse,” she adds. “The person is either dead or alive. So, if they’re still alive, you might be able to get their heart beating. If they die, they were dead anyway. You simply cannot make the situation any worse.”
Heartstopping moments: Six steps to giving CPR
1Check response
2Call 999
3Open airway, check breathing
4Give two breaths
5Place hands on centre of chest and start compressions
6Continue and repeat – 30 compressions followed by two breaths until help arrives
