Community First Responders: How it works
999 Call madeEmergency Medical Dispatchers priortise a call as life threatening and dispatch emergency resources.
CFR on sceneCommunity First Responders arrive on scene and provide immediate life support to the patient and reassurance to the family.
Ambulance arrivalAn ambulance crew or Rapid Response Paramedic arrives and takes over care of the patient.
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Community First Responders
What is a Community First Responder Scheme?
Community First Responders are teams of volunteers trained by the ambulance service to a nationally recognised level and provide life saving treatment to people in their communities.
Community First Responders are always backed up by an ambulance vehicle.
Immediately after a heart attack, a patient begins with apporximately 80% chance of survival. This is reduced by 7-10% for each minute that passes without a defibrillator. This is where Community First Responders can save lives. Why are schemes so important?
The governments white paper "Saving lives - Our Healthier Nation", stressed the importance of early public access defibrillation. In many illnesses or injuries, the first few minutes are critical and simple interventions can be performed in order to save lives and prevent disability.
Defibrillation
In the UK, 135,000 people die each year due to what is commonly called a heart attack or Myocardial Infarction. Two thirds of these deaths occur outside of hospital. Death is often caused by a lethal, but treatable, electrical abnormality in the heart called Ventricular Fibrillation or VF. The only treatment is DEFIBRILLATION. Minutes save lives. The sooner a defibrillator is used, the better the patients chance of survival
Join or Support us. The life we save could be yours.
