ESSEX and Herts Air Ambulance was called to 167 cardiac arrests from January to the end of March, making up a third of the 545 critical missions it has attended so far this year. While, encouragingly, patients received bystander CPR in three quarters of those incidents (76%), it is still not always attempted on patients who suffer a cardiac arrest. The charity is using the latest statistics as a reminder of the importance of bystander CPR.
Each year, around 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur across the UK, with survival rates below 10%. Every minute without CPR reduces the chance of survival by 10% making early intervention critical. Essex & Herts Air Ambulance wants to get to a position where everyone across the region feels confident to deliver CPR.
No one knows this more than Garth Jones (52) from Wivenhoe who has made a short film with the charity about his experience. In August 2023, Garth, a college professor and otherwise healthy individual, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at home, saved only because of the immediate actions of his wife and young son and the work of the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance and the East of England Ambulance Service.
The last thing Garth remembers is sitting up in bed reading then everything fading out and vaguely hearing his wife’s voice telling him to wake up. He didn’t until five days later, in a bed in Basildon Hospital ICU. His wife Corrine had dialled 999 and his son, who was ten years old at the time, held the phone and relayed the instructions for doing CPR to his mum who did chest compressions until the first responders arrived.
Corrine remembers: “My son was basically relaying the instructions to me. He was saying ‘mum, 1, 2, 3, 4’ and I would do 1, 2, 3, 4 with the chest compressions. The paramedics told us afterwards without this he wouldn’t have survived”.
Paramedic Adam Pitcairn, who leads on cardiac arrest for Essex & Herts Air Ambulance’s Centre for Excellence, said:
“Garth was one of the lucky ones. His experiences show how bystander CPR can mean the difference between life and death. While the numbers delivering CPR so far this year are really heartening, we still go to all too many scenes where no one has felt able to intervene and it’s simply too late, which is devastating. No-one expects to have to do CPR on a loved one – or a stranger, but it can make all the difference. I’d urge anyone who’s unsure about how to do it to brush up on their skills now so they’re ready should the need ever arise”.
Garth, who has been a supporter of the air ambulance charity ever since his recovery, and has shared his experience in a new film for the charity, said: “I’m so grateful to my family and to the air ambulance team – it’s like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I won’t ever take that for granted. I can’t imagine other families having to go through this and not getting such a positive outcome. It makes you realise how important it is to get the right care and attention at every stage and we can all play our part by learning CPR”.
Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is dedicated to advancing emergency pre-hospital care, continually investing in research, innovation and education through its Centre for Excellence to improve patient care, including its CPR Smart™ programme, which offers free CPR and defibrillator training to schools across Essex and Hertfordshire.
Watch Garth’s full story: https://ehaat.org/blog/garths-story-2/
For advice on how to do CPR: https://ehaat.org/life-saving-first-aid/ and to find out more about Essex & Herts Air Ambulance or to donate, please visit ehaat.org
