Managing Director of Sandy Crest Medical Centre, Dr. Brian Charles (second from left), gives the CPR training mannequin a few chest compressions, as (extreme left) Head of the Accident & Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr. Cheynie Williams, Commander David Dowridge of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and CEO of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, Gina Pitts, look on.

Managing Director of Sandy Crest Medical Centre, Dr. Brian Charles (second from left), gives the CPR training mannequin a few chest compressions, as (extreme left) Head of the Accident & Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr. Cheynie Williams, Commander David Dowridge of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and CEO of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, Gina Pitts, look on.

CPR lifeline

Life-saving technique could have helped in sudden death cases

EIGHT to ten minutes.

THAT'S the small yet critical window in which cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be used to potentially save a person experiencing a sudden cardiac event, which could lead to a sudden cardiac death.

It is for this reason that Managing Director of Sandy Crest Medical Centre and the Coverley Medical Centre, Dr. Brian Charles, is calling for widespread training, particularly in light of the nine sudden deaths recorded for the first seven months of the year.

His call came as he presented several CPR training mannequins to a number of non-governmental organisations, as well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, with a price tag of approximately $10 000. He said this gesture also comes as the Sandy Crest Medical Centre celebrates it's tenth anniversary.

Dr. Charles explained that CPR is a temporising measure for persons experiencing sudden cardiac events, with the more definitive treatment being defibrillation by a trained professional.

“CPR can be taught to anyone. With CPR you buy the person with a sudden cardiac event some time before they get attended to by a medical professional. CPR can be taught to anyone within four to six hours of instruction, and it is life saving, if you realise that every minute of someone in ventricle fibrillation, their chance for resuscitation decreases by ten per cent.”'

“That means that someone with sudden cardiac death only has about 8-10 minutes to live before they can get definitive treatment. If we are doing CPR resuscitation, resuscitating with basic life support that extends that time, because you are allowing for profusion to occur.”

He observed that CPR in the cases of persons who died suddenly this year might have made the difference between life and death.

“If there was only someone who could have attended to anyone of those people with the sudden cardiac arrest within 8-10 minutes, that person could have been saved. But if there is no one who has the training to do CPR, then that life is going to be lost within 8-10 minutes.”

Dr. Charles explained that heart disease is a significant problem around the world, and at times presents with little or no warning. “Sudden cardiac arrest can be responsible for half of the deaths due to heart disease.”

He further explained that 80 per cent of cardiac deaths by sudden cardiac attack occur outside of the hospital setting.

“Sudden cardiac attacks happens in the public. So if you want to address it, you have to address it in the public. Even though our ability to recognise persons at risk for sudden cardiac disease is increasing, 90 per cent of the cases occur in persons who have not had their risk factors identified. (JH)

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