Byline: Neil Connor
You cannot do anything wrong when you are trying to save a life that is already dead - that is the message from a new organisation set up to give people training in resuscitating people who have suffered a cardiac arrest.
Apparently, many people are put off being trained in these skills because they believe they might be blamed if their attempts at bringing people back to life are unsuccessful.
But for Heartstart UK, doing something is always better than doing nothing.
The organisation, which is a partnership between the Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust and the British Heart Foundation, is going out into the community over the next few weeks to pass on skills which could help people to deal with a life-threatening emergency.
Latest figures show that, in the last 12 months, of the 1,032 people in Birmingham who suffered a cardiac arrest at home or outside a hospital, 988 died. Less than ten per cent received any kind of help.
Without any intervention, experts believe that a person's chances of survival fall by ten per cent every minute after a cardiac arrest.
But the good news is that anyone can learn resuscitation skills - even me.
Two former paramedics called Mike Mcleod and Paul Turner - recently recruited resuscitation officers - started the ball rolling with a demonstration, before I attempted to bring life back to the cheeks of Anne.
Anne is actually 'resusci-Anne', a doll who has probably received more mouth-to-mouth than a career-driven glamour model.
But before the serious business could start, I had to check what the situation was like around the casualty. Any electrical wires, slippery surfaces, or fallen objects should be picked up and noted as potential hazards - one casualty is better than two. It is also important to tell someone nearby to get help - a first-aider should not do everything alone.
Then it's time for an appraisal of the patient. If there is no breathing, there is a good chance the patient has had a cardiac arrest.
Now it is time to tilt the head back in order to open the airway, before two mouth-to-mouths breaths can be administered.
If there is still no response, it is straight into 15 chest-presses. To ensure that 15 are being carried out, you can sing the first verse of Nelly the Elephant while you are doing it - but not out loud.
Hopefully, by then the patient will be coughing, spluttering and returning to life. If not, the paramedics might have turned up.
Even if there is no sign of life, at least the patient was given the best chance of surviving under the circumstances.
Mr Turner said: 'The most common reasons for people not intervening range from fear, and simply not knowing what to do, to not wanting to call out an ambulance unnecessarily.
'If cardiac arrest happens in the home, in the street or in the pub, emergency teams will get there quickly - but with these simple skills we hope that anyone can buy vital time and greatly increase a person's chances of survival.'
Heartstart is urging people to attend one of its training courses, which begin today at Birmingham's Bullring, in the conference centre on the Upper Mall, starting at 10am, 12am and 2pm.
Further courses will be held at Handsworth Leisure Centre, Birmingham Sports Centre and Moseley School Health & Fitness Centre.
To arrange a session or find out more information call 0121 465 4831
A matter of life and death
The Heart of Birmingham PCT area has the highest mortality rate from coronary heart disease among under 75s in the West Midlands
Coronary heart disease in the PCT area is around one and a half times that of the regional average
Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating
Unless intervention occurs, usually through defibrillation, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or heart massage, the patient will die
The chances of successfully reviving a patient in cardiac arrest greatly increase if resuscitation is given in the first four minutes following cardiac arrest
Typically survival rates for cardiac arrest in a clinical environment are around 15 per cent
Heart attack is when blood clots block major arteries in the heart. This can lead to cardiac arrest
