The Spanish Council for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation estimates that around 50,000 cardiac arrests occur annually in Spain, of which around 30,000 occur outside hospitals. For this reason, the intervention of the general population that witnesses a cardiorespiratory arrest is essential to start the chain of survival with which to save lives. And to achieve this, the reaction has to be fast.
Otherwise, there will be irreversible damage, since every minute that passes without action can have very serious consequences , such as brain damage or even death. The most effective way to avoid them is for the entire population to receive basic training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), so that they can intervene in the event of witnessing a cardiorespiratory arrest.
Through CPR, the irrigation and oxygenation of the different organs and tissues can be maintained. If we can get the heart going again, the person who has suffered cardiac arrest can continue to live. In fact, bystander CPR can triple survival .
These are the steps to follow in case of witnessing a cardiorespiratory arrest :
- Check if the person is unconscious and not breathing. If the person has lost consciousness, does not move and does not respond to our words or physical stimuli, we should approach and check that the chest does not move and that no air comes out of the mouth or nose (10 seconds of observation is enough to know).
- If you are not breathing, call 112 and provide the location.
- Start CPR maneuvers (from 100 to 120 compressions per minute on the sternum) until the means of 112 can arrive.
- Ask another person to locate the nearest defibrillator.
- Continue CPR maneuvers until the ambulance arrives.
Training from school
In order to extend CPR training to as much of the population as possible, the law states that first aid training must be taught in primary schools. However, a survey conducted by the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Working Group of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) and published in the Revista Española de Cardiología (REC), concludes that only 16% of Spanish schools have a training program in Structured CPR within school hours. The same survey also showed that 68.8% of students do not know that 112 is the emergency telephone number.
With the aim of increasing the level of CPR training at school this year, the Spanish Heart Foundation (FEC), in collaboration with the SEC’s Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Working Group, have created the CPR Schools Awards , which in this In the first edition three categories were awarded: maximum participation, originality and training project, and the awards went to RCP from my school, the Salesian College Santo Ángel de la Guardia de Avilés and the Colegio Santo Tomás de Avilés respectively. You can see the video of the awards ceremony, where the three finalists in each category explain their project, at this link .
As Dr. Pablo Jorge Pérez, president-elect of the association of ischemic heart disease and acute cardiovascular care of the SEC, points out in the CardioPOSCAST ‘CPR in schools, the opportunity to invest in the future’ , “cardiac arrest requires the participation and the involvement of everyone, cannot depend solely and exclusively on the toilets or on the arrival of an ambulance because, as we know, time is precious”.
Dr. Andrés Íñiguez, president of the FEC, stresses that “it is necessary to promote initiatives to help, encourage and spread CPR knowledge among the youngest. For this reason, we thank all the educational centers that have participated in this first edition of the awards that contribute their grain of sand to change the reality regarding the knowledge of these techniques in our country. In the same way, we encourage you to continue working on projects that improve cardiovascular health and especially those that increase the survival of people who suffer cardiac arrest.
