As October marks Restart a Heart Month, Welsh heart charity Calon Hearts is raising awareness of the barriers which could prevent women from receiving lifesaving CPR after a cardiac arrest.
Research has found that women who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are less likely than men to receive CPR from a bystander.
Possible barriers include uncertainty or embarrassment about touching a woman’s chest when performing CPR, something Calon Hearts says should never prevent somebody from stepping forward to help.
I spoke to Sharon Owen, founder and CEO of Calon Hearts, about why women may be less likely to receive CPR.
“Cardiac arrest and heart problems have traditionally been perceived as more of a male issue… Bystanders can be more reluctant to perform CPR on women, mainly because CPR involves placing your hands on the centre of the chest.”
Sharon says that when somebody is unresponsive and not breathing normally, there is no room for embarrassment, with CPR and a defibrillator potentially giving that person their best chance of survival.
She also believes CPR training needs to better reflect the situations people could face in a real emergency.
“We would like CPR training to reflect the diversity of people… this includes women and different body shapes and sizes.”
“If people are worried about touching breasts, removing clothing or positioning the defibrillator pads, those questions should be addressed during training… rather than becoming barriers during an emergency."
The Resuscitation Council UK has recently highlighted the use of breast vests which can be fitted to standard CPR manikins.
The vests allow people to practise CPR on a more realistic representation of a female body.
Calon Hearts says normalising CPR training across different body types could help remove some of the hesitation people may experience when faced with a cardiac arrest.
The charity has trained almost 605,000 people in CPR over 14 years, and placed more than 39,000 defibrillators within the community.
Calon Hearts and their volunteers are offering free of charge CPR training, and urge anyone interested to get in touch.
Hear the full interview with Calon Hearts CEO Sharon Owen, on the Vale This Week - Wednesday from 7pm or listen again via https://www.broradio.fm/on-air/valethisweek/
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