Doctor Hans van Schuppen who describes himself as an Anesthesiologist and Resuscitationist tweeted today an impressive statistic coming out of the Dutch resuscitation community…
“In Holland, an
#AED is placed before ambulance arrival in 65% of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases. One-month survival is around 25% (total, all initial rhytms). The AED is getting so familiar in society, it even got its own traffic sign.”
He went on to say…
“It has been increasing steadily over the past years. Police and fire dept. are equipped with AEDs and send as first responders. But also: trained civilians can be activated through an app or sms by the dispatch center, 50% to get an AED and 50% to start BLS.”
With survival rates just over 8% in the UK, Nick Osborne tweeted back with a valid point…
“Whereas we have Members of Parliament that do things like this to prevent cpr being taught in schools. We should be ashamed that we have people like this ‘representing’ us. We’ve got some catching up to do.”
It goes to show you what can be achieved if the powers that be all pull together in the right direction!
After our first meet-up in February 2015, I realised I was not alone. It was the first time since my cardiac arrest the previous year that I had spoken face-to-face with someone who had experienced what I had. This was also true for my wife, who also happened to be my lifesaver. From that meet-up, the idea of SCA UK was born. Since then, we have achieved a considerable amount, primarily providing information, resources and support to others in a similar situation but also raising the profile of survivorship and the need for better post-discharge care. We are starting to get traction in this, and with the formation of the charity, I genuinely believe we have a bright future ahead and will make a significant difference in the lives of many who join our ranks.