Latest News & Events
Blackwell Village joins the Restart the Heart Campaign
Arrhythmia Alliance; The Heart Rhythm Charity is supporting groups to introduce AED’s to public places as a way of helping combat sudden cardiac arrest, the UK’s number one killer.
Education and awareness offered in life-saving defibrillators
An education and awareness event to teach people how to use life-saving defibrillators will be held on Monday 6th June in the Oxfordshire village of Hook Norton. Click here to see the press release.
Any group interested in having a defibrillator installed with the help of The Heart Rhythm Charity, should contact Fiona Aherne at fiona@heartrhythmcharity.org.uk
A-A Teaches Local Chidren How to Save a Life
Children at a West Midlands School have been taught how to perform emergency treatment using life-saving CPR and an automated external defibrillator.
The children took part in the workshop led by Arrhythmia Alliance as part of their Health Heart Enrichment programme.
Village gets life-saving equipment
Cotswold Journal
The automated external defibrillator (AED) was donated by Shipston-based national heart rhythm charity, the Arrhythmia Alliance, to be used in Armscote and surrounding communities, which are outside the eight-minute travelling distance of an emergency ...
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St John Ambulance to issue a further 18 defibrillators in Jersey
St John Ambulance in Jersey are delighted to announce that following a kind donation from a local benefactor it has been able to purchase and deploy a further 18 defibrillator heart start machines in Jersey. This will bring the total in situ Island wide to 115.
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Arrhythmia Alliance launch another Life-Saving Defibrillator
Click here to view the press release.
Life-Saving Defibrillator Installed at Shipston’s Leisure Centre
Click here to view the press release.
Teaching Students to Save Lives - Charity Gives Lessons in Emergency Resuscitation to School Children
Click here to view the press release.
The DIY shock treatment that can kick-start a stopped heart
‘Before I knew it, I’d blacked out. The next thing I remember is people standing around me in Blackpool Hospital. Tracy later told me I’d started to go blue, collapsed on the ground unconscious and stopped breathing.’
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York Ambulance Association earns HeartSafe Community designation
Seacoastonline.com
York Ambulance Association Inc. was honored for its commitment to improving the survival odds for victims of sudden cardiac arrest, heart attack and stroke, ...
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Ms. Cheap: CPR classes are a good investment
The Tennessean
Sudden cardiac arrest (outside of a hospital) is responsible for an estimated 166000 deaths each year. That's nearly 450 a day. More people die from cardiac ...
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Widespread Use of Defibrillators in Public Places Saves Lives: Study
BusinessWeek
AEDs placed and used in public places will save lives if they are easy to find and a bystander is willing to use them, Weisfeldt added. "AED use in the home...
HEART RHYTHM CONGRESS 2010
‘Advances in the Education of Defibrillation’ Roundtable
Featuring the Launch of Resources for Children - Monday 4th October 2010 - View agenda
The meeting was a great success and underlined the need for a clear direction from the Government, Resuscitation Council and the British Heart Foundation. Attendees included members of the ambulance services, medical and healthcare professionals with an interest in defibrillation, industry and affiliate organisations. A presentation was also given by Professor John Anderson, the inventor of the Automated External Defibrillator (AED), on the history of the AED from the 1960s to the present day.
‘Restart The Heart’ campaign teaches local children how to save a life
A-A in collaboration with the West Midlands Ambulance Service recently educated 70 children at Shipston High School in awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest and training in both CPR and the use of AEDs. Read full article
New Village Defibrillator Blessed
A very special Blessing took place in October 2010 when the Vicar of Rogate Parish, Edward Doyle blessed the new Rogate Village Defibrillator.
A small group gathered from amongst those who had helped so much to make this life saving idea, come to fruition to witness this very special act of faith.
Following the blessing for which Edward had found a prayer that had been especially written for just such a piece of medical equipment, 'our vicar never ceases to amaze us with what he can find and come up with when called upon!'
AoFA supports Heartsine's Automated External Defibrillators
Advances in Community Defibrillation Discussion
The ‘Restart The Heart’ campaign took to the spotlight at the Heart Rhythm Congress in October 2009, when the Arrhythmia Alliance team organised an ‘Advances in Community Defibrillation’ discussion. Representatives from Ambulance Services across the UK were invited to the 6 hour discussion, together with individuals who are in the process of, or planning to, implement their own AED placement project.
During the day, there were presentations from Italian cardiologist Dr. Daniela Aschieri on the ‘Latest Research in SCA and AEDs’; Mountain Rescuer and Community First Responder Duncan Massey on the challenges faced on a daily basis; Mr. Keith Boyes (South Central Ambulance Service) on ‘The Role of a Community First Responder’, Mr. Duncan Parsonage (West Midlands Ambulance Service) on ‘The Life Link Scheme’ - the use of CCTV and radio systems to facilitate access to AEDs, and Director of AED Locator Clive Setter, together with Kim Morrissey (Great Western Ambulance Service) to discuss the success of the HeartSafeTM Cabinets in Chew Valley, Bristol.
As part of the discussion, Arrhythmia Alliance were proud to launch their new AED training unit in partnership with Laerdal Medical – Mini-Anne CPR & AED Training Kit. Mr. John Venning (Laerdal Medical UK) presented the global need for CPR and AED training and gave a demonstration of the training unit in action. For more information about the Mini-Anne CPR & AED Training Kit, click here.
The aim of this meeting was to unite the all parties involved within the Restart The Heart campaign, as much as possible and to share and elaborate on the success of individual initiatives to date. The Advances in Community Defibrillation discussion certainly achieved this goal and even enabled the Arrhythmia Alliance team to establish new contacts to help drive the project forward.
Some of the feedback received included: “I attended Advances in Community Defibrillation and I was ashamed about how little I, a GP knew about it all! First responder not a paramedic, paramedic’s passion about benefits for the community, Green Box Scheme- I have learned an awful lot, thank you!”.
Arrhythmia Alliance would like to give a special thank you to all the speakers who contributed to the day and made the event so successful - we couldn’t have done this without you.
Hambleden AED and HeartSafeTM Cabinet Launch
On 12th October 2009, Arrhythmia Alliance attended the launch of four AEDs in HeartSafeTM Cabinets in the Hambleden area, Buckinghamshire. The villages of Hambleden, Skirmett, Fingest and Frieth are now ‘heartsafe’ communities with their own public access to defibrillators in an emergency, thanks to the hard work and determination of the Hambleden Parish Council (HPC). Under the South Central Ambulance Service remit, the four villages have AEDs placed in secure weather proof cabinets which are accessible in an emergency upon dialling 999.
For more information about this scheme click here or visit www.aedlocator.org. Wycombe MP Paul Goodman said: "Automatic defibrillators save lives. They're invaluable in places such as the Hambleden Valley from which medical vehicles may be inaccessible speedily. Those involved in the programme locally should be congratulated for their work in getting the programme up and running."
2009 European Resuscitation Congress - Cologne, Germany
In October 2009, Arrhythmia Alliance attended the European Resuscitation Congress (ERC) in Cologne, Germany, to gain a greater insight into the research and developments regarding the resuscitation guidelines – due for renewal in 2010. Shockingly, there are over 350,000 SCAs in Europe every year – the equivalent of two jumbo jet crashes every single day – and for every minute that passes, there is an unsuccessful resuscitation preformed. Attendance to this congress provided the team with the latest facts and figures in SCA and reinforced the importance of the Restart The Heart campaign not only within the UK but internationally.
CPR in Schools Symposium – Sponsored by Laerdal Medical
Cologne, Germany
Arrhythmia Alliance were invited to attend a “CPR Training for Schoolchildren” conference in Cologne were presentations were held on some of the most successful CPR training programmes across the world (including Canada, Japan, Norway and Spain). A-A was invited to participate in group discussions to share thoughts, ideas and experiences regarding best practice and initiatives for CPR training. It became apparent that targeting children between the ages of 11-14years was the most effective time to introduce CPR training; in Canada alone, 2,300 schoolchildren are trained each year.
With the new Mini-Anne CPR and AED Training Kit developed and ready to distribute, this meeting provided a timely insight into how the kit could be launched. The conference highlighted the importance of adequate networking and partnership with similar projects in other countries and so, as a result, a second meeting was held in April 2010 in Jersey, Channel Islands.
Jersey, Channel Islands
Since 2001, Jersey has seen the establishment of 85 public defibrillators around the island. Represent
atives from the UK which included Jersey, Guernsey and Ireland, Norway and as far as New Zealand, came together to highlight recent developments and strategies undertaken.
Left to right: Richard Evens (St John Ambulance), Heather Peebles and Trudie Lobban (Arrhythmia Alliance), James Lang, Dawn Upton, John Venning and Nigel Truscott (St John Ambulance), Claire O’Neil (BHF), Brigid Sinnot (Irish Heart Foundation), Jonathan Smart and Michael Sautter (Laerdal Medical)
Restart The Heart campaign takes Arrhythmia Alliance across Europe
Francesc Romero Truno, Clive Setter (AED Locator), Trudie Lobban, Daniela Aschieri & Ben Fry
The past six months have seen the Restart The Heart campaign leap from strength to strength, with not only additional placements of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in rural areas, such as Hambleden (Buckinghamshire) and Ambaston (Derbyshire), but in the involvement with International projects and initiatives of a similar nature.
Italy
In June 2009, Arrhythmia Alliance was approached by Italian Cardiologist, Dr. Daniela Aschieri, who was planning a visit to the UK to discuss the success of the AED placement project in Italy.
In 1998, Dr. Aschieri, President of Il Cuore di Piacenza; a non-profit organisation in Italy, dedicated to finding solutions for the prevention of sudden death in the community, joined forces with Professor Capucci, Head of the University of Ancona, to establish an Italian defibrillation project named Progetto Vita (literal translation, Project Life).
Following an initial meeting, Arrhythmia Alliance was invited to Piacenza to learn more about Project Vita and to observe the initiative in action. In September 2009 A-A spent four days in Piacenza with Daniela to gain a greater understanding of the project.
Progetto Vita, aims to provide public access to AEDs in the event of sudden cardiac arrest and to educate the public on the importance and procedure of using an AED. To-date, approximately 35 AEDs have been placed in and around Piacenza, in emergency service vehicles (such as police cars) and at static sites at prime locations throughout the city. The system is activated in conjunction with the Emergency Services. Upon receiving a call regarding a suspected cardiac arrest, the dispatcher will either:
- Advise the centre and/or emergency vehicle with a defibrillator of the incident and request that the AED is taken to the scene.
- Advise the caller of a nearby static site.
At static sites, the AEDs are housed in white cabinets beneath a bill-board of instructions and information about the equipment, which not only offers support and guidance to a user during an emergency but helps raise awareness of the AEDs location, necessity and use at all times.
During their time in Piacenza, A-A representatives were also invited to a nearby school to take part in an interactive AED training and awareness presentation. At such a young age, the children had such a thirst for knowledge and were so keen and eager to learn how they could save the life of a family member or friend. After watching a live demonstration by the volunteers, every child took it in turns to show the rest of the class how they would handle a cardiac arrest patient. The children were taught the importance of calling the emergency service immediately and the necessity of early defibrillation – after all, for every minute defibrillation is delayed, a patient’s survival rate decreases by 10%.
As a result of the meeting, we at Arrhythmia Alliance are proud to announce the collaboration of Progetto Vita with the UK initiative Restart The Heart and the birth of a new European AED Project. Together with the aims of the Restart The Heart campaign, the European AED project will enhance the provision of supporting materials (information booklets, fact sheets and project research), generate media interest to help raise awareness and will encourage the sharing of initiatives and achievements.
Strength in numbers! Watch out World, here we come…
European AED Project
Ibstone Village Fête
On Saturday August 1st, representatives of the Arrhythmia Alliance, Ben Fry and Joanna Goldberg, held a stand at the Ibstone Village Fete together with local villager Melanie Grimsdale, to demonstrate the importance of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest. During the event many villagers approached the stand to gain a greater insight in the use of AEDs and to sign in support of a local campaign. (Picture Right: Joanna Fearnley, Ben Fry and Melanie Grimesdale at Instone Village Fête). Funds are now being raised to provide the village of Ibstone with its own AED and HeartSafeTM Cabinet.