A region-wide project equipping hundreds of people with the practical skills to save a life has been shortlisted for two awards in the 2015 Air Ambulance Awards of Excellence announced this week (21st September).
The CPRathon is being recognised by the Association of Air Ambulances for both the Air Ambulance Innovation of the Year Award and Air Ambulance Campaign of the Year Award.
It was devised by the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), East Anglian Air Ambulance, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, MAGPAS Helimedix Air Ambulance, BASICS Essex Accident Rescue Service, Norfolk Accident Rescue Service and Suffolk Accident Rescue Service.
Sandy Brown, EEAST’s Director of Nursing and Clinical Quality, said:
On behalf of the partnership, we are delighted that our innovative CPRathon has been shortlisted for these two awards. This vast undertaking relied on the goodwill of dozens of our clinical teams around the region, and we’d like to thank all of the venues for helping us host this event to improve the skills of the everyday person in the street, and also raise awareness of our work for critically ill patients.”
The chances of someone being brought back to life after going into cardiac arrest can be greatly improved by early by-stander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the aim was to help mythbust any concerns people had with rushing to someone’s aid if they had collapsed.
More than 500 members of the public took part in the CPRathon in Bedford, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Downham Market, Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough, Southend, and Stevenage, and received practical life-saving skills using clinical ‘Annie’ dummies.
Visitors also learnt that: – when a heart stops beating, just three minutes can be the difference between life and death – fewer than one in five people with a survivable cardiac arrest receive the life-saving intervention they need – bystander CPR can increase survival rate of a cardiac arrest patient by 60%
Chloe Smith MP, Chair of the Judging Panel, commented:
The level of expertise and dedication of the people working in the air ambulance sector is extraordinary and these awards are a wonderful way of showcasing their work. This year’s awards entries were truly outstanding and contained stories of individual bravery, determination and brilliance, as well as outstanding teamwork, skill and vision so it was a very difficult task to choose the shortlists. Each and every nominee is clearly an exceptional individual or team, and I would like to thank all of them for their hard work.”
The Air Ambulance Awards of Excellence are open to all those within the air ambulance community in the UK to recognize exceptional people helping to save and improve lives. Winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony to be held on 16 November at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Kensington, London.
Pictured are Paramedic Esther Shawe with the McCoy children learning CPR.
