Eight minute dash to save lives

The search is on for people to be part of a team of volunteers prepared to join the front line in saving lives.

First Response Volunteers get to people who have had a heart attack or suffered a serious illness in the absolutely critical first minutes after the 999 ambulance crew have been called.

East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust estimates it takes on average eight minutes to get a crew from Norwich to the Long Stratton area. For that eight minutes, a heart attack victim's life hangs in the balance.

The Trust are searching for volunteers in the Long Stratton area who can make it to the victim in those first eight minutes.

Sue Green, of Southern Norfolk Primary Care Trust, is Health Improvement Adviser at South Norfolk Council. Through her own Heart Start scheme, she has already trained 1,300 people in South Norfolk. Now she has turned her attention to helping the Ambulance Trust find Community First Responders.

She said:

"This is an extraordinary opportunity to save lives, which is carried out by hundreds of very ordinary people right across the country in other First Response Teams. They volunteer their time and commitment to make a difference.

"There is nothing to fear. The training in basic life support techniques and First Aid is excellent. And every volunteer carries a defibrillator in a pack on their backs and are properly trained in how to use it. This state of the art machine talks the volunteer step by step, through the process of its use.

"This is a chance to be there for someone's mother or son, grandfather or daughter in those critical first few moments after that 999 call."

Community First Responders is an initiative supported by East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust. They want volunteers in the Long Stratton area who can get to an emergency call very quickly, while they make the blue lights dash from Norwich.

Sudden cardiac arrest claims around 150,000 lives each year in the UK, with survival rates of only around five per cent outside a hospital setting.

If someone's heart has stopped, the only way to get it going is by passing an electric charge through the heart muscle. The first minutes after a heart attack are the most critical to survival. A volunteer using a defibrillator to get the heart going can mean the difference between life and death.

Andrew Barlow of East Anglain Ambulance NHS Trust said:

"This is not about improving response times or cutting costs, it's about giving patients a better chance of survival. If you are reasonably fit, a car owners and you are interested, call the Community Responder Team at 01603 481220."

Sue Green can be contacted by anyone wishing to take part on 01508 533717.

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