Restart a Heart Week 2019 takes place from Monday 14th to Friday 18th October
Hundreds of staff and students from universities and colleges around the country are learning how to restart a heart and save a life this week thanks to free CPR training from the Irish Heart Foundation.
Restart a Heart aims to create awareness that everyone should learn CPR. This year Restart a Heart Week takes place from Monday 14th to Friday 18th October and the Irish Heart Foundation is encouraging people across the country to learn CPR through its free Hands for Life training courses.
As part of the global Restart a Heart initiative, seven colleges around Ireland are offering free Hands for Life CPR training to their students, employees and local communities. Universities and institutes of technologies offering the training include: University College Cork, Athlone Institute of Technology, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, The University of Limerick and Waterford Institute of Technology.
Every day 13 people die in Ireland from cardiac arrest and the majority – more than 70 per cent – of cardiac arrests happen at home. CPR is a lifesaving skill and involves pressing hard and fast on the centre of a person’s chest. If you witness a cardiac arrest and perform CPR, you can double, if not triple, the person’s chance of survival. CPR is easy to learn and by completing a CPR course at any stage in your life, you are 10 times more likely to respond and assist in an emergency.
Brigid Sinnott, Resuscitation Manager with the Irish Heart Foundation, said: “Every day, 13 people in Ireland die from a cardiac arrest and colleges are an ideal setting to educate young adults and local communities in CPR and reduce the incidences of death from cardiac arrest. CPR is a lifesaving skill that everyone can learn, and we encourage everyone to sign up and take part in the free Hands for Life CPR training as part of the Restart a Heart initiative.”
“ Every day, 13 people in Ireland die from a cardiac arrest and colleges are an ideal setting to educate young adults and local communities in CPR and reduce the incidences of death from cardiac arrest,"
Brigid Sinnott, Resuscitation Manager , The Irish Heart Foundation
Cathal Joyce, who suffered a cardiac arrest while playing a football match at the age of 25 said, “CPR is an easy skill that I encourage everyone to learn. My life was saved by three rounds of CPR and a shock from a defibrillator. You don’t know when you are going to be faced with the situation of recognising a cardiac arrest so sign up, take part in the free Hands for Life CPR training and learn how to use your hands to save lives.”
Paul Hennessy, Customer Experience Director, Abbott, said: “At Abbott, we work to keep hearts healthy with our life-changing technologies and by empowering communities to prevent non-communicable diseases, here in Ireland and around the world. We know CPR saves lives, and by providing CPR training to 100,000 people through “Hands for Life”, we can provide people across Ireland with the practical knowledge they need to step in and save a life in the most serious of situations.”
Paul Mulvaney, Executive Director, Customer Delivery, ESB Networks added: “ESB Networks is proud to partner with and support the Irish Heart Foundation and the Hands for Life programme. We have a strong connection with every community in Ireland and this programme allows us to strengthen this connection by engaging with these communities and empowering those within them to become part of a nation of lifesavers. I encourage people across Ireland to take part and urge them to spread the message to their friends, families and the wider community.”
The Hands for Life training course takes just under one hour to complete and attendees will learn:
• How to recognise a cardiac arrest
• How to perform compressions, including hands-on practice on a CPR training manikin
• How to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator)
• How to respond to a choking emergency
• How to recognise a stroke
Hands for Life training courses are free and open to all adults aged 18 and over. In addition to the courses taking place in universities and colleges to mark Restart a Heart, there are more than 70 free Hands for Life training courses scheduled across the country in October alone. For more information, to sign up or to organise a free Hands for Life training course in your community, visit www.HandsForLife.ie or contact us by phone 01 668 5001 or email handsforlife@irishheart.ie.
