When the heart has stopped pumping blood
around the body (known as a cardiac arrest) there is a period of time
immediately afterwards when it can be restarted again.
If you are able to carry out basic
life-support by doing chest compressions and giving the ‘kiss of
life’, you will help to keep the blood flowing around the patient’s
body and improve the levels of oxygen in their blood.
However, giving an electric shock to the heart
greatly increases the chances of it beating again. This process is
called defibrillation, and the machine used to shock the heart is
called a defibrillator.
Every one of our vehicles—from an ambulance to
a bicycle—carries a defibrillator so that our staff can shock a
patient’s heart when they have a cardiac arrest.
Defibrillator training
There are over 750 defibrillators in
public places across London, such as train stations and tourist
attractions. We have trained more than 6,100 people who work in
these places to use the defibrillators so they can start
life-saving procedures while our staff are on their way.
In the last year 49 defibrillators have been
sited and 1,080 people have been trained or re-trained.
We installed a life-saving defibrillator at SEALIFE London
Aquarium.
We also work with SADS
UK to help people at risk of suffering from a cardiac
arrest. SADS UK is a charity that provides defibrillators and heart
monitoring equipment to people that need it. We
provide training and support to people where the
defibrillators are installed.
The British Heart
Foundation is currently running a campaign to raise money so
that more defibrillators can be put in public places in
London.