Save a Life Cymru

by solvacommunitycouncil | Jan 21, 2021 | Other Community Council Business, Solva Newsletter

As part of our commitment to a healthy and safe community we’re supporting the Save a Life Cymru project. We’ll be sharing more information from the project as we have it.

Every year over 6,000 people in Wales will have a cardiac arrest in the community and many will die without some simple and easy to learn interventions. Save a Life Cymru; established to increase the number of people who survive a cardiac arrest in the community; is seeking your support to help them share this important lifesaving message.

They have produced a training video: https://gov.wales/save-a-life-cymru and are looking to assist with training for public access defibrillators and encouraging the installation of more.

Touch Someone’s Life, a public information campaign, explains what any person should do in the event of a cardiac arrest (a condition where the heart suddenly stops working and the person becomes unconscious). CPR must be started immediately to pump blood around the body and a defibrillator used to restart the heart. The unpredictable and time-sensitive nature of cardiac arrest in the community makes it a unique medical emergency. There is no other medical situation that relies on such community intervention.

Around 80% of community cardiac arrests in Wales happen in peoples’ homes and can happen to anyone at any time. Many who experience a cardiac arrest often appear healthy with no known risk factors.  This emphasises the importance for everyone to have CPR skills to help save family, friends, colleagues, neighbours or a stranger.

Their ambition is to create cultural change across Wales so that everyone  understands the urgent need to help anyone experiencing a cardiac arrest, as well as having the skills and confidence to start CPR and defibrillation.