St John Ambulance

Today’s speaker was Julie Holmes,School and Community Trainer,from St John Ambulance and was to receive a cheque for £1000.The money was donated to help them purchase a defibrillator.

Julie thanked us for the donation and assured us that the equipment would be used at events in Cleethorpes  and Grimsby.There are 8/9 volunteers in this area. A question was asked “ Have we seen defibrillators situated in many buildings including village halls?”Did we know how to use it? If not ,here are instructions on the technique.

Julie produced a dummy ( top of a torso with no arms) as a demonstration model .Many of us have done some rudimentary traing for CPR,but this was an update.If some one has a heart attack  and if help does not arrive within 5 minutes , then the chances of recovery are slim.It is vital to maintain blood ,flow by  compressing the chest (demonstrated by two inches)  for a  count of 30 and followed by 2 breaths into the patients mouth. Repeat until help arrives ….. do not stop until the defibrillator is ready to go.

Its use was demonstrated and it is vitally important to bare the chest of clothes (scissor can be used) and apply the patches(you may need to remove  body hair and dry the body surface),stand back and flip the switch.The defibrillator will stop the fibrillation.It will not be repeated if the person begins to breathe normally

It was a very thorough demonstration.