Restart a Heart Day: Scots urged to help save a life by learning CPR as part of annual initiative

Scots are being urged to learn how to perform cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) which could help them save a life.

Annual initiative Restart a Heart Day, led by Resuscitation Council UK, aims to increase the number of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by helping more people learn CPR.

Restart a Heart Day works in partnership with a number of organisations including UK Ambulance Services, universities, and other charitable and public sector community-based organisations and first aid training organisations to deliver free CPR demonstrations.

A person who learns CPR just once in their life is ten times more likely to respond in an emergency than someone who has not.

It comes after figures revealed that almost 80% of outside-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home, making it more likely that CPR will have to be performed on a family member.

Louise Waldie, NHS Grampian, who delivered a session as Aberdeen’s Trinity Centre on Wednesday, said: “80% of out-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the home.

“And the most important thing for that persons survival is that somebody can perform CPR until help arrives and until we can get them to hospital.”