CPR from the public saves 300 lives in single year

Secamb staff demonstrating how to perform CPR

Members of the public in the South East have helped save more than 300 lives in a year by knowing how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Some 307 people in Kent, Surrey and Sussex who went into cardiac arrest survived for at least 30 days after being resuscitated.

Kirsty Finch, from Hadlow in Kent, used CPR on her husband when he went into cardiac arrest in December, having been trained in the procedure just four weeks earlier.

"I'm so glad I took the course as it gave me the confidence to act in those critical moments before the teams arrived," she said.

South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) is urging more people to learn CPR to "significantly increase a person's chance of survival".

There were 2,172 occasions where the public used CPR in attempts to resuscitate people having a heart attack across the region in the 12 months from March 2023-March 2024, according to the latest figures.

It means the area covered by Secamb has a public CPR success rate of 11.5% - the highest rate recorded by any English ambulance service and an increase of 2% on the previous year.

Dan Cody, interim deputy chief medical officer and consultant paramedic for Secamb, said: "It can take a whole community to save a life and the public, our volunteers, my colleagues and our expert hospital teams are all vital links in the chain of survival.

In-person CPR training is available throughout the UK from multiple organisations.

The British Heart Foundation and the Resuscitation Council UK also offer CPR training online.