Restarting Yorkshire with Matti Ward

Matti Ward was the speaker at Knaresborough Rotary on Monday evening. Matti, who works for the National Grid, is a trained First Responder and set up his own charity, ‘Restart Yorkshire’, installing and maintaining Defibrillators in the area. Matti ensures that the Defibrillators are live on the 999 system so that response teams at ambulance headquarters know the location of each unit with its unlock code.

According to the Resuscitation Council UK, fewer than 1 in 10 people in the UK survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest. Each year, about 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) in the United Kingdom. Only one in every twenty people that have a cardiac arrest survive to go home from the hospital.

Immediate initiation of CPR can double or quadruple survival from out hospital cardiac arrest. Only 40% of people receive bystander CPR in the UK. Defibrillation within 3–5 minutes of collapse can produce survival rates up to 50–70%.

Matti gave a vivid description of an incident he experienced in which he helped to save a man’s life with the use of a defibrillator. Rotary in Knaresborough has installed three Defibrillators in the town which now has more than two dozen devices, all overseen by Matti Ward. Rotary President Jim Moorhouse was pleased to present a cheque for £50 to Matti towards Restart Yorkshire’s ongoing costs. Once used the pads inside a defibrillator must be replaced and they have a two-year life if unused. Rotary in Knaresborough and Matti Ward offer Defibrillator familiarisation sessions and are committed to maintaining the units in a ready for use level.

For more information contact secretary@knaresborough.rotary1040.org