A Campaign has been set up in DCU to raise awareness and encourage people to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
62 per cent of DCU students surveyed said that they are unable to perform CPR. Final year health and society student Aoife Murphy had to complete a health action project as part of her final year project and says that she chose one that she felt was important.
“My project was focused on the factors which affect the survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and I discovered that a bystanders response to someone in cardiac arrest can have a huge impact on the survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest so I decided to do something about this,” she said.
The campaign ‘Restart a Heart, Learn CPR’, was launched on Facebook late last month, the page has been used to educate people with the help of statistics and videos.
Murphy said that her campaign aims to highlight the effectiveness of acting quickly if someone is in cardiac arrest.
“It’s about the importance of a bystander’s response to someone in cardiac arrest and also the importance of performing CPR and as well as initiating it quickly, this can hugely increase someone’s changes of survival.”
The project is specifically aimed at students which is why Aoife said she is using social media, “I thought making a Facebook page would be a good way to get the message across and I have also made a video.”
The video features statistics surrounding CPR and the story of 25 year old student Cathal Joyce who discusses how the quick thinking of others saved his life. He now urges others to learn CPR.
According to the Irish Heart Foundation 70 per cent of cardiac arrests happen in the home and performing CPR can double the chances of survival.
Megan Roantree
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