Cardiac
First Response
Fingers crossed you don’t
need to dial 999 for an ambulance, but if you did, you’d expect
a doctor, a nurse or a paramedic to arrive –
From January 05 a new project NIPAD - NI Public Access Defibrillation
– is hoping to save lives by giving heart attack victims greater
access to defibrillation. The plan is to use a trained volunteer
– a cardiac first responder who may arrive before the cardiac
ambulance, with a portable defibrillator
On Your Behalf finds out more from the project manager Dr Michael
Moore who told On Your Behalf
A new project, Northern Ireland Public Access Defibrillation (NIPAD),
is hoping to save lives by providing much greater access to defibrillation
to heart attack victims.
The greatest cause of death
in Northern Ireland and in the developed world is heart disease.
In the majority of cases this manifests itself as sudden death,
most frequently occurring outside hospital. These sudden deaths
are caused by cardiac arrests, where the heart stops beating effectively.
Viewers of Casualty and ER
will be familiar with the defibrillation process, where an electric
current is passed across the heart to re-start it. Evidence shows
that the sooner defibrillation occurs after the individual collapses
the greater the chance of survival.
The NIPAD project will begin
in January 2005 and will involve training local members of the North
and West Belfast, Antrim, Ballymena and Magherafelt community to
resuscitate people from sudden cardiac arrests occurring outside
hospital, using Automated External Defibrillation (AEDs).
In all cases of out-of-hospital
cardiac arrests an Emergency Ambulance will also be dispatched,
but the initial actions of the trained volunteer could mean the
difference
between life and death until the ambulance arrives. The training
will involve one 3 hour session with follow up sessions every 6
months and has the backing of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.
It is important to realise
that from January 2005 when you ring 999 for a collapsed victim,
a Cardiac First Responder may arrive at your door first, before
the paramedic. The Cardiac First Responders are either lay people
or PSNI (Police) officers trained in the use of AEDs and in some
cases chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. However
the paramedics will arrive at all cases as normal and in some cases
before the Cardiac First Responders.
“We are currently looking
for volunteers who live or work in North/West Belfast, Ballymena,
Antrim or Magherafel,; hold a driving licence and have access to
a vehicle. We plan to deploy AEDs in strategic positions throughout
North and West Belfast, Ballymena, Antrim and Magherafelt. These
AEDs will be used by trained members of the local community. We
have already started training local people and they are finding
the training straightforward and enjoyable. We are encouraging people
from all backgrounds to volunteer. We anticipate that the PAD programme
will reduce delay time to defibrillation for out of hospital sudden
deaths and ultimately improve survival in North and West Belfast,
Ballymena, Antrim and Magherafelt” explained Project Manager
Dr Michael Moore.
The project is organised jointly
by the department of Cardiology and Public Health (Queens University)
at the Royal Victoria Hospital and is being funded by HSS R&D
Office.
PAD schemes are currently a
great success in other countries such as Italy, England and North
America where many lives have been saved by locally trained volunteers.
To become a volunteer we require only that you hold a current driving
licence, have access to a vehicle and live or work in the above
areas.
If you are interested in volunteering or have any queries contact
the team at the Royal Victoria Hospital. The contact details are
shown below:
To apply, go to
Nipad
and download the recruitment sheet. After this has been completed
in full print it off and send to the above address or e-mail it
to PAD@qub.ac.uk
If you do not have access to
the internet send your name, home address, work address and contact
telephone number to the address below.
Frank Kee / Michael Moore
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
Mulhouse Building
Royal Victoria Hospital
Grosvenor Road
BT12 6BA
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