Did you know that if a victim of sudden cardiac arrest gets good quality chest compressions and bystander defibrillation their chances of survival are 5 times greater than if onlookers wait for paramedics to arrive?
Who are Hunter Heart Safe?
We are a group of local health care workers, volunteering our time to teach CPR and AED use to the community. We aim to teach hands only CPR and AED use to as many as people in the community as possible in order to save lives. We hope to increase the survivor rate of cardiac arrest victims from its current 10% to the 65% survivor rate seen in some communities overseas.
The name of this volunteer organisation comes from the Heart Association’s concept of a “Heart Safe Community”- a population where there are enough community-based CPR and AED layperson-responders to start to improve outcomes in cardiac arrest.
Why hands-only CPR?
Hands only CPR has been shown to be as effective at saving lives in cardiac arrest as traditional CPR with rescue breathing. A bystander is more likely to initiate chest compressions if they don’t feel obliged to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing. Hands only CPR is an easier skill to teach, learn and maintain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hands only CPR has been shown to be as effective at saving lives in cardiac arrest as traditional CPR with rescue breathing. A bystander is more likely to initiate chest compressions if they don’t feel obliged to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing. Hands only CPR is an easier skill to teach , learn and maintain. See the youtube video posts on this page.
Any community group, school, business or other interested organisations can arrange teaching sessions. You just need to organise a space, a time and a group of at least 10 participants (bigger groups help us achieve teaching coverage more efficiently). Any teaching staff engaging schools will have had Working With Children Checks.
We don’t offer any certification just a brief (around 30 mins) intervention to teach cardiac arrest recognition, hands only CPR and AED usage. We want to keep our sessions brief, accessible, simple and empowering.
The service is free.
Via email or social media. hunterheartsafe@gmail.com on Instagram @hunterheartsafe or find us on Facebook.