One hundred and eighty-six Year 8 students, at Richmond School, have learned how to respond in an emergency and perform CPR. These vital first aid techniques were taught to them by a team co-ordinated by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS)
The ‘Restart a Heart’ initiative was the brainchild of the YAS, and Richmond School are extremely proud to have been part of this fabulous event since its inception in 2014. After taking place throughout Yorkshire in the early years, the project has since been rolled out nationally and more recently across the world.
Over eight sessions, students were shown a short introductory video and then guided by the emergency services trainers on how to call for help, check airways, perform CPR and the role of the defibrillator. They learned about the importance of an immediate response in the event of someone’s heart stopping and how, by performing CPR in the first few minutes, the patient’s chances of survival increases greatly.
The eight-strong ‘Restart A Heart’ team was made up of community first responders, firefighters, nurses and paramedics. Each of them had chosen to give up their day off to carry out the training, so strong is their belief in the value of the scheme. Lesley Butterworth, Yorkshire Air Ambulance Group Station Manager, commented: “We know in countries where we teach CPR to children the outcomes for cardiac arrest survival are better. ‘Restart a Heart’ is about teaching young people a vital life skill so they can help in the event of a cardiac arrest.”
Each student had a ‘Resusci Anne’ mannequin to simulate a real-life emergency situation and they listened attentively and carried out each task in a very professional manner. Nicola Walker, Biology Teacher and Co-ordinator of ‘Restart a Heart’ at Richmond School commented: “We have a long-standing association with ‘Restart A Heart’ and are privileged to have been involved since its start. We initially worked with our Years 10 and 11, which means these students could now be in their second years of university and it’s great to think that over 800 of our students have benefited from training on such an essential life-saving skill.”