Learn to restart a heart

You can help to save lives by learning CPR. Restart a Heart day is now in it’s eleventh year and we want you to share this page with children, colleagues, family and friends to spread the word.

A photo depicting a man lying on ground in cardiac with CPR being performed

Here at West Midlands Ambulance Service, we want everyone to learn this life-saving skill so you will know what to do if someone collapses with a sudden cardiac arrest.

  1. When someone has a cardiac arrest, they collapse and become unresponsive. They either stop breathing entirely, or they might take gasping or infrequent breaths.
  2. If you see someone unconscious or breathing abnormally, ring 999 immediately. You will speak to an ambulance call handler who will help you confirm if the person is in cardiac arrest and, if they are, will guide you through doing CPR.
  3. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) describes the process of compressing the chest to squeeze the heart and pump blood around the body.
  4. First you must place one hand on top of the other on the centre of the chest and push hard and fast on the chest to help pump blood around the person’s body. You should keep a steady rhythm of about 120 compressions every minute.

The benefits of improving bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) rates are evidenced around the world where the highest bystander CPR rates are directly linked to the highest survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest. 

Over 68,000 people suffer cardiac arrests outside of hospital in the UK every year. If this happens in front of a bystander who starts CPR immediately before the arrival of the ambulance, the patient’s chances of survival doubles.“

Restart a Heart Day

Restart a Heart Day is an annual training event that occurs on or around the 16th October. Each year, the collaborative effort of hundreds of clinicians, teachers and volunteers sees thousands of children and members of the public trained in how to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). This is sometimes referred to as Basic Life Support (BLS) or performing chest compressions. Our record was in 2019 where we managed to train over 67,000 children across the region in one day!

Each Restart a Heart day we’re always keen to get as many schools on board as possible, so we can increase the number of young people who learn the importance of CPR. If you are interested, please email [email protected] for more information.

We would love to hear about your Restart a Heart Day, so please share your experiences with us on Facebook, X, Instagram and Threads via @officialWMAS.

Paramedic Alice teaches CPR & use of a defibrillator 

Alice Jones is a Paramedic based at our Willenhall hub. She was also a finalist in the Miss England 2022 competition and, as part of her talent entry, put together this fantastic video to increase awareness about CPR and defibrillation.

Alice said: “With the ambulance service attending roughly 68,000 cardiac arrests in a year, only ever half of them have resuscitation attempts by a bystander. You and so many others can learn how to perform effective chest compressions. It has been proven that early CPR and early defibrillation by an AED can help save lives. So with the help of Baby Shark and ABBA to keep your rhythm, you can help save lives.”

Little Lifesavers

It’s not just grown ups and teenagers who should learn about CPR! Our “Little Lifesavers” campaign is aimed at younger children and is a fantastic educational activity to teach youngsters not only about the ambulance service but the important skills they need to help save a life.

Become a Little Lifesaver! – West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust

 

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