Children pump up chances of saving heart attack victims
If you are unlucky enough to have a heart attack, you could do worse than find yourself in North district.
Over the past three years, more than 3,000 secondary students there have been trained in administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, raising the odds that a passer-by knows how to save your life.
Students obtain a card after a three-hour training session certifying that they have passed the CPR test, and the result is valid for one year.
In an ideal world, one out of every five people should know CPR. In reality, the average in Hong Kong is closer to one in every 10 people.
'CPR can double or even triple the survival rate of patients,' said Chung Chin-hung of North District Hospital, who spearheaded the community training programme. 'It is a way to buy time as the flow of blood to the heart and the brain is maintained.'
Giving students the know-how was key, Dr Chung said, as accidents could happen within a school environment, such as during sports events. Students older than 13 should have enough physical strength to sustain a standard CPR procedure of 30 presses on the chest and two breaths of artificial respiration.
CPR buys time until an ambulance arrives. A portable defibrillator, on the other hand, can restart the heart by giving it an electric shock.
Dr Chung said there was widespread misunderstanding about the machine, so the hospital was planning to offer a defibrillator training course as its next step.
'A lot of people mistakenly think that a defibrillator might kill a healthy person, as it generates electric shock,' he said.
The Hospital Authority has purchased 172 devices since January for 21 public hospitals in the city, and Dr Chung said it was a good idea for schools to keep one on the premises.
The government will study over the next two years the feasibility of installing automated external defibrillators in public places after a recent public outcry over delayed treatment of a man who collapsed with a fatal heart attack outside Caritas Medical Centre in December.
Brief window
CPR by a bystander can double survival chances
The number of minutes a cardiac-arrest victim has before brain death starts if CPR is not administered is: 5
