Restart a Heart Day 2019

Pupils are today learning the importance of CPR as part of a worldwide initiative.

Cundall Manor School joined hundreds of schools from across the country to take part in ‘Restart a Heart Day’ – a programme which provides pupils with life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training.

Pupils as young as NINE joined in the training which aims to teach members of the public how to help restart the heart of someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest.

Instructors from The Yorkshire Ambulance Service taught over 250 children at the school how to perform CPR using an interactive DVD and practical instruction on inflatable manikins.

School nurse, Vicky Lee, organised the event for the school. She said: “Events like this help raise awareness and equip our pupils with a real-life skill that could prevent someone dying.”

Adding: “We are really proud to be taking part in the sixth annual Restart A Heart Campaign and second annual World Restart A Heart Campaign today.”

“A huge thank you to the volunteer instructors, predominantly Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff, who deliver this invaluable training free of charge on their day off. It is an amazing opportunity to be able to train 258 pupils from Year 5 onwards with life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training”

Across Europe around 350,000 people a year suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a medical environment, often in the home.

Bystander CPR by non-medical persons increases survival by two to three times, however, today it is delivered in only one in five out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest cases. Estimates suggest that by increasing this rate we may save 100,000 lives in Europe per year.

CPR consists of 4 key steps:

1. Call for help
2. Check for signs of life
3. Perform mouth-to-mouth
4. Perform chest compressions

To find out more about Restart a Heart Day visit the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust dedicated website on https://www.restartaheart.yas.nhs.uk/ The Resuscitation Council (UK) have also produced an app to help people on the go learn CPR. You can download it from your app store.