LIFE-SAVING ambulance staff are passing on their basic skills to the Salford public for Restart a Heart Day.
Paramedic David McNally, from the North West Ambulance Service, is one of those out to teach as many people as possible how to use life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Last year, all the ambulance services collectively trained 150, 581 people in life saving CPR in a single day.
Mr McNally said: “Every cardiac arrest we attempt, 65 out of every 100 have got somebody doing these essential lifesaving skills. As a paramedic, that’s really important because it keeps the body oxygenated.”
North West Ambulance Service is aiming to teach young people CPR in the UK and the steps are simple.
“By putting your hands in the centre of someone’s chest, pushing as hard as you can to squash the chest down which will ultimately squashes the heart,” explains McNally. “That ultimately then perfuses the body with oxygenated blood.
North West Ambulance Service hopes to expand the use of automated external defibrillators as well as encouraging younger people to learn CPR.
Mr McNally said: “What we’re trying to increase is the use of automated external defibrillators.
“These machines are commonplace within buildings and in Salford University we’ve done a lot of work to place these.
“The building we are in now at MediaCity has one, the health schools have numerous defibrillators located across the area and MediaCity does.
“These are normally symbolised by a green heart with a flash of electricity through, so the more people we train, the better.”
In the North West region last year, the North West Ambulance Service trained about 40,000 people.
“We’ve seen an increase from the previous year and a ten percent increase in bystander CPR so if we can do that this year again and increase it by another ten percent it’s going to make it a lot better for someone suffering that worst case emergency,” says McNally.
To find out how to get involved in the nation’s biggest mass CPR training event visit the page .
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