Restart A Heart Day lands at Swindon Town

To mark Restart A Heart Day, which occurs this weekend, Wiltshire Air Ambulance emergency awareness trainer Chris Mead and a host of South Western Ambulance Service (SWASfT) paramedics will be on hand to assist during a medical emergency.

Restart A Heart Day is an annual training and awareness event relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillator use.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance launched its own ‘Emergency Awareness Training’ programme in 2019, demonstrating the importance of recognising a person in cardiac arrest and teaching CPR.

This programme is delivered at schools and colleges across Wiltshire and Bath, teaching children and students aged from four to 18 years of age. The programme also includes using an AED, managing a choking/bleeding patient and placing an unconscious patient in the recovery position.

To date we have been into 184 schools and delivered the programme to over 20,000 school children and students.

The aim of Restart A Heart day is for everyone to understand the importance of hands only CPR. Unfortunately, around 30,000 people every year suffer a sudden cardiac arrest and without immediate treatment, 90-95% of sudden cardiac arrest casualties will die.

So far this year, correct as of end of September, Wiltshire Air Ambulance has been called to 302 cardiac arrests and medical collapses. This represents 39% of all call outs so far in 2022.

Although we have made tremendous progress in schools across Wiltshire and Bath, Restart A Heart Day is about informing people of all ages how to recognise the signs of someone in a cardiac arrest and empowering them with the skills to be able to perform CPR to help save someone’s life.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance have been the club’s Charity of the Year partner for the past six seasons. If you’re attending the game this weekend please come and visit our team, who will be on site from 1pm.

Find out more about our Emergency Awareness Training programme here.