School children get lifesaving leon in heart heal for Valentine s Day

12/02/2015

Philips supports national launch of community defibrillator programme designed to teach CPR as a basic life skill

London, UK - Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHIA) For millions of people across the UK the words Valentines and heart are synonymous with romance, but for students at the Robert Smyth Academy in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, the association took on a whole new meaning this week with a lesson in the potentially life-saving skill of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Following the recent award of a contract to Philips to provide automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to schools across the UK, this lesson marked the start of a new nationwide community defibrillator programme being rolled-out in support. The programme is designed to underline how, regardless of age, anyone has the potential to become a lifesaver, leading the way to save a life just by using simple-to-learn techniques and with access to a community defibrillator device.

Commenting after a successful training session at The Academy, Health and Wellbeing Officer, Angela Sippits said: For some, the idea of resuscitation can seem like a scary prospect, so were eager to show the students that it's actually quite simple. This programme does exactly that, giving students both the training and confidence needed to become potential lifesavers of the future.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and undiagnosed heart conditions impact as many as 12 young people each week[1] and can have fatal consequences. The defibrillator programme shows people of all ages how simple it can be to save lives. Currently, four-fifths of people who sustain out of hospital cardiac arrests don't receive any bystander CPR, resulting in poor survival rates.[2]

The defibrillator programme, which will initially provide 500 Philips HeartStart FRx Defibrillator school-package units through the NHS Supply Chain Framework Agreement, is designed to reduce accessibility barriers of using defibrillators. The Philips HeartStart FRx AED devices come with a Life Guidance application built in, a programme that talks the user through every step of the process in an emergency cardiac incident requiring CPR and resuscitation. There is also an informative phone and tablet IOS and Android application for hands off' familiarisation.

Neil Mesher, Managing Director at Philips Healthcare UK&I said; At Philips we're about innovations that not only improve lives, but save lives. When a sudden cardiac arrest strikes every second counts, so not only do we need to see access to defibrillators improved but we also want to see people starting to feel more confident and capable in using them - potentially saving both time and more importantly saving lives. That's why this community defibrillator programme is so important, and why its so great to see it successfully kick-off in Leicestershire this week. We believe that defibrillators should be as widely available as first aid kits; in every school, sports club, business and public building in the UK.

[1] Cardiac Risk in the Young, CRY consolidates services under one roof', available at: http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/cry-consolidates-specialist-services-under-one-roof, accessed February 2015

[2] NHS England Factsheet, Increase bystander initiated CPR by increasing proportion of population trained in CPR from 3.8m people to 5 million nationally, available at: http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/pm-fs-3-2.pdf, accessed February 2015

LINK:	http://www.newscenter.philips.com/gb_en/standard/news/press/2015/20150...
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