Support for World Heart Day

As Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of premature death in the UK, Arco is keen to educate its customers on the facts and potential dangers SCA can pose in order to help them prepare for all eventualities.

SCA is an abrupt loss of pulse and consciousness caused by an unexpected failure in the heart’s ability to effectively pump blood to the brain and around the body. Yet, with proper immediate treatment, many lives can be saved. For victims of SCA, defibrillation is a crucial stage in a sequence of events which need to occur to ensure the victim is fully resuscitated. 

The need to act quickly is supported by the survival rate to response time statistics. For example, if a defibrillator is used on a victim within 3-5 minutes of collapsing, survival rates can be as high as 50-70%. However, the likelihood of a successful resuscitation decreases by around 7-10% with every minute that passes and unfortunately, after 10 minutes without defibrillation very few attempts at resuscitation are successful. 

Whilst first aid courses and defibrillator specific training is available, circumstances often dictate that no trained operator is present on site when an emergency strikes. With this in mind, the latest defibrillators in the Arco catalogue are purposely designed so that everyone, including the untrained user, can easily access the equipment. It is important to note that defibrillators are completely safe to use and will not allow a shock to be given unless the heart's rhythm requires it. Furthermore, the machines are designed to be stored for long periods without use and require very little routine maintenance. Arco hope that by educating the untrained user, they will feel more confident to use them in a crisis. 

Niall Robinson, product & procurement manager at Arco, said: “With a wealth of expert information from our in-house specialists, we want to stress the importance of education surrounding defibrillation, with the premise that workers can be more proactive in the early stages of SCA. We are delighted to be taking part in increasing the awareness of this tragic cause of death and hope that in doing so, more lives can be saved in the future.”