The following stories show the Chain of Survival in action, starting with a prompt 999 call, followed by CPR intervention, the arrival of an AED, and early access to advanced care.

The locations range from a home, to an airplane, to a Hawaiian resort. The people, in apparent good health before the attacks, are all different ages with different backgrounds. These differences aside, the stories share some critical similarities. Most notably, CPR-trained bystanders started the life-saving process, and trained responders arrived with AEDs in hand, just in time to save the victims.

The survivors speak...

Select a Testimonial Laerdal Supports Biggest Heartstart UK Scheme for Schools.First in-flight save starts with CPR from wifeTrained officers at airport save 49-year old manVacationer is Saved By a Trained PolicemanPianist Saved at Utah Ski ResortElderly lady saved by bystandersPolice Sergeant Saved by Fellow OfficerEarly Response Saves Wisconsin ManVital Heartstart training helps to save life in Health CentreDefibrillator Successfully Saves a Life on Hampstead Heath

Laerdal Medical Ltd has donated two HeartStart First Aid training defibrillators to an outstanding voluntary scheme in Norfolk, through which two pioneers from the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust intend every pupil in Norfolk to leave school equipped to save lives.

In October 2003, Pete Simpson, a paramedic from the Ambulance NHS Trust, attended a sudden cardiac arrest for the tenth time in the Norfolk region within a month. A man had collapsed outside a school, and “as is so often the case,” said Pete, “not one person at the scene had been able to deliver CPR or defibrillation before the arrival of the ambulance. Despite the treatment we administered, the patient sadly died. Frustrated once again at people’s lack of skills in basic emergency life support (BELS), I decided to take action.”

Pete, together with his colleague, Jeanne Reynolds, researched the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest in other areas of the world. He explained, “After a visit to Seattle, USA, where 43% of the public can confidently administer CPR, (and you are never more than about 12 feet away from someone who has these skills), it became apparent that the key to the success of educating the masses was to invest in the future by somehow building a programme into the school curriculum.”

Supported by the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart scheme, Pete and Jeanne volunteered to set up and run a long-term project throughout Norfolk. With 114,000 pupils in 450 schools in the region, Pete’s and Jeanne’s Heartstart UK scheme is the biggest and most ambitious in the UK. To date, over 70 schools in the Norfolk area have taken part. The scheme works on a cascade basis, with Pete training the teachers, Jeanne coordinating the scheme and helping with the training, and teachers training pupils with equipment funded by the British Heart Foundation.

Nightingale First School in Taverham, Norwich was one of the first schools to take part in the scheme, and was the first of 11 schools in the area to purchase a Heartstart First Aid Defibrillator. Jackie Loughlin, Head Teacher, said, “By teaching BELS skills right the way up through school, from knowing to dial 999 at the age of 4 to older children being able to have a go at treating a person in ventricular fibrillation, children can accumulate the practical skills, knowledge and confidence needed to make a difference to the current statistics of sudden cardiac death. Through teaching these skills to children and having a defibrillator in the community, we are giving all our citizens the best chance of survival if the occasion arises.”

Michaela Parker, Laerdal’s Southern Sales Manager said, “It is highly commendable that Pete and Jeanne have taken the initiative to embark on a voluntary scheme of such magnitude, and Laerdal is delighted to support them. Community responder defibrillators like the Heartstart First Aid Defibrillator are now so affordable and easy to use that having them in schools and training pupils to use them together with CPR is certainly the way forward in helping to improve survival.”