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You are > Home > Check, Call, Compress. Three steps to save a life
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Check, Call, Compress. Three steps to save a life
BY PAUL CLAFFEY
IT must be a wonderful feeling to be involved in saving a person’s life and I must say that I was somewhat surprised to see that approximately 5,000 fatalities every year in Ireland are thought to be as a result of sudden cardiac arrest.
It seems to be a massive amount of people and so alarming are some of the figures that a campaign has just been launched that aims to inform people that you don’t have to do mouth-to-mouth to save a life.
Approximately 65% of sudden cardiac arrests happen in the community and not in hospital. Many of these incidents are witnessed by bystanders, and a group called Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) is now hard at work informing the general public how they can help in a crisis situation. They say there are three steps that should be followed if you witness an adult suddenly collapse.
These are:
¦ Check: Is the person unresponsive and not breathing?
¦ Call: Get someone to call 999 or 112, or call them yourself.
¦ Compress: Start compressions. Push hard and fast in the centre of the chest. Don’t stop until help arrives.
The campaign was launched recently by Dr. Pixie McKenna and consists of TV, cinema and transport advertising. Their website www.citizencpr.ie features an interactive compression-only CPR simulator and enables people to find a CPR course in their area.
A vital part of the campaign is the Citizen CPR Road show where members of the public can try out compression-only CPR with local CPR Instructors. PHECC is bringing the road show to SuperValu in Castlebar on Saturday, July 17, from 9am to 6pm and is inviting everyone to come along and learn the simple steps they can take to learn how to save a life.
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THE World Cup really didn’t catch the imagination of the general public did it?
There were flashes of passing interest – particularly when England and France were involved – but overall the soccer fraternity weren’t overly engaged in the tournament.
That said, I see that many commentators feel that it was one of the best finals ever held and South Africa definitely pulled out all the stops in making sure that the various matches all went to plan.
Hopefully the next time around Ireland will be there and when they are we’re bound to have a completely different perspective on it. It’s hard to believe that its just over 20 years since we qualified for the last 16 of a World Cup tournament. Bet you remember where you were that precise moment David O’Leary converted that penalty.
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Did you ever think a member of the Beatles could every reach the ripe old age of 70! Last week Ringo Starr celebrated that milestone and I couldn’t believe it. I guess it’s when you realise a Beatle can live to be 70 you start to hope that humans can live to be over 100!
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