Christien Ericsson’s cardiac arrest and his successful resuscitation, due to the availability of a defibrillator and the quick action of those around him brings into clear focus the vital work that Cardiac Action Group is doing to provide public access defibrillator sites and training at no charge across the Bailiwick.
Now the Cardiac Action Group is encouraging more businesses, schools and organisations to offer CPR and defibrillator training to help save lives.
The charity has installed more than a hundred 24-hour Public Access Defibrillators across the Bailiwick and have provided cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator (AED) training to over 3,000 islanders since 2018.
“The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest decreases with every minute of non-action. Our aim is to ensure that as many people as possible know what to do and have easy access to a defibrillator. We know that 11 people in the Bailiwick are alive today because they had access to a community defibrillator and to people who knew what to do,” said Mike Froome, Cardiac Action Group Community Resuscitation Development Officer.
Two of those 11 have now joined the Cardiac Action Group committee – Rick Denton as patron and Nick Brown as a committee member.
“Rick and Nick are living proof of how vital the charity’s work is. They are fantastic ambassadors and their energy and enthusiasm will be a huge asset to the Cardiac Action Group,” said Gerry Le Roy from the Cardiac Action Group
Mr Brown said the funding the charity received from businesses, organisations, the charitable sector and the public was used for the heart health work in the community and allowed the charity to employ a Community Resuscitation Development Officer (CRDO).
“The CRDO provides life -saving training to all sectors of the community with the aim of raising the number of bystanders across the Bailiwick who are confident and able to act immediately to finding someone who is not conscious and not breathing normally and thus increasing the survival rate and quality of life in the event of anyone having an out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest,” said Mr Brown.
Ravenscroft employees have recently undergone training having first completed the course in August 2019 when they fitted a defibrillator to the outside of their office in New Street.
“We had a fantastic take up from staff and they all commented on how useful it was. What was particularly interesting was how the guidelines have changed due to Covid which highlighted how important it is to have regular training,” said Katrina Bray, marketing & PR executive at Ravenscroft.
Mr Denton said the commitment of companies like Ravenscroft was essential to ensuring people were trained.
“It’s fantastic that companies like Ravenscroft not only provide a public accessible defibrillator for the benefit of the whole community but also ensure their staff know what to do. The charity is grateful to everyone who gives up their time to complete the training, to those who have sponsored the sites and to those guardians who check and clean each defibrillator,” said Mr Denton.
