Despite studies showing that CPR performed by a bystander can more than double an unconscious person’s chance of survival, only less than five per cent of Australians know what to do according to the Red Cross. Senior trainer Janie McCullagh says older students often feel the need to learn first aid skills in case their loved ones get in trouble.
A lot of them do say for family members whether it’s their children or their grandchildren. They are very keen to know about what are the differences in performing CPR on an adult and a young child or an infant. So there’s really two elements there about who are they interacting with? Is it Grandchildren? You know what happens if my partner collapses and goes unconscious and goes into cardiac arrest? Is it friends or is it other family members?
A person’s chance of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest reduces by ten per cent with each passing minute. Haspall says using a defibrillator can dramatically increase the possibility of revival coupled with CPR.
Now a defibrillator is a piece of equipment that helps the heart to restart because what’s happening is that your heart is defibrillating which means it’s getting irregular electrical impulses which is stopping it from beating properly. So a defibrillator helps to rest the heart. A lot of people tend to think that a defibrillator is a piece of equipment that you need specialised training in but it’s something that’s very very basic you just need to know when to get it and when to press the button.
