Paramedic to teach free lifesaving lessons

A paramedic dedicated to improving public access to free lifesaving lessons has started work in southwest London.

Funded by the British Heart Foundation, London Ambulance Service Community Resuscitation Training Officer Sam Wilcox's role is to coordinate basic life support 'Heartstart' lessons in the community. Sam will also be working with local organisations that want to be involved with helping to save lives by getting their own defibrillator. There are over 800 public-access defibrillators in London.

Sam, who previously worked as a paramedic team leader in Croydon, said: "Everyone should feel confident to use a defibrillator as they are safer and easier to use than a fire extinguisher.
If there were as many defibrillators around as fire extinguishers we'd see a lot more people surviving cardiac arrest."

Patients are now twice as likely to survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in London than they were just four years ago. Latest figures show that in 2010/11, 31.7 per cent of patients suffering an out-of-hospital, bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest and who were treated by ambulance staff were discharged alive from hospital, compared to 10.9 per cent in 2005/06.