Solihull shoppers taught CPR by paramedics

West Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics taught shoppers how to give CPR

Paramedics have been teaching shoppers how to help somebody if they have a cardiac arrest during free workshops.

West Midlands Ambulance Service staff demonstrated CPR techniques at Touchwood shopping centre in Solihull.

Ollie McCormack from Erdington Ambulance hub said they hoped to give people confidence with life-saving techniques.

He said people were often scared of doing harm but CPR was "relatively easy".

The sessions formed part of an annual campaign called Restart a Heart, led by the Resuscitation Council UK, which aims to improve poor survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Ollie McCormack said people were often scared of doing harm

Mr McCormack said: "You're not going to do any harm if you're trying to save someone's life."

CPR was "relatively easy", he said, with the ambulance service regularly teaching it in schools.

"It's getting it out there, getting people aware of what they should do and how they should do it, and the importance of doing it should they need to," he said.

He added shoppers had gained confidence from the demonstrations, with some sharing stories of carrying out CPR on patients who survived.