If someone collapsed and stopped breathing in front of you, would you know what to do?
Burnley Football Club has teamed up with North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) to show match goers how easy it is to save the life of someone in cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest is the most extreme emergency and happens when the heart stops pumping blood around the body. If someone has a cardiac arrest, they will lose consciousness almost at once and there are no other signs of life.
- In the UK alone, around 30,000 cardiac arrests occur out of hospital each year
- 80 percent occur in the home
- 20 percent occur in public places
- Every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces chances of survival by up to 10 percent
Some cases of cardiac arrest can be corrected by giving an electric shock through the chest wall using a defibrillator, whilst simple chest compressions and rescue breaths keep blood and oxygen circulating in the body, preventing damage to organs such as the brain.