Pumping Marvellous

St Augustines RC High School in Billington gets a defibrillator

35 teachers and support staff went through an intensive AED familiarisation along with basic life saving skills with Pumping Marvellous and the North West Ambulance Service.

St Augustines RC High School in Billington gets a defibrillator

St Augustines RC High School in Billington gets a defibrillator

Pumping Marvellous awarded £10k fund for AED‘s in schools 

A 10k scoop by Pumping Marvellous having won the race for the Gannett Award. The Gannett Foundation is a charitable foundation associated with the Lancashire Telegraph. We are immensely pleased with such a large sum of money to spend on life saving equipment which is badly needed in the East Lancashire area. We will be working with the North West Ambulance Service through the Chain of Survival Committee which is responsible for coordinating AED mapping. Nick our founder sits on this committee and will ensure that all the AED’s we install will be mapped through the NWAS CPad network. This will ensure that when people dial 999 the emergency operator will be able to direct the responder to the AED. Working with NWAS we will also be working out where to place them from an evidence based incident / risk assessment so that the AED’s give as much accessibility as possible. Every school will also be contracted to leaflet drop within a 1min 30secs radius of the AED location ensuring that everybody knows where these are, increasing awareness. We will also train a set of first responders for each of the schools and provide them with CPR and AED training.

Read the article here 

Please read this as it is important.

On average 12 young people die from a cardiac arrest every week in the UK. Normally we wouldn’t allow this to happen as this equates to two plane crashes a year. By providing hands on only CPR and an AED within four minutes of the incident the person’s survival chances with the combination of treatments is 43% in the UK. The reason for putting the training into schools with an AED is because of the following statement.

Seattle, on the west coast of the US has been training its children in schools with basic lifesaving skills on the curricula for 36yrs. If you collapse within the city limits of Seattle from a cardiac arrest you have an 89% chance of survival. Our case is rested.

REMEMBER 

Modern AED’s are designed for lay persons, you and me, you can’t get it wrong and they will not shock unless the person is either in ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation.

Life saving bid to buying life saving defibrillatorsfor Lancashire Schools

International sign for Automated External Defibrillators

This is the report by Catherine Pye for the Lancashire Telegraph

BUSINESSES in East Lancashire are being urged to buy defibrillators for local schools. Hapton-based heart failure charity Pumping Marvellous wants a donation of £1,200 from every company in the area for automated external defibrillators (AEDs) – portable devices which can shock a  stopped heart back into rhythm.

Charity founder, Nick Hartshorne-Evans, said: “Twelve young people a week die of cardiac arrests, and of those, eight were undiagnosed problems. “If two planes full of young people crashed every year, would it be acceptable not to investigate it?

“Companies have got the money for this. It’s social responsibility to take up the slack because of the lack of public investment.

“If a business can raise £1,200, they can offset that against tax and tell us where they want the AED. “We will then go into the school with the British Red Cross to teach the first responders how to use the machine, then the staff and the pupils.

“What we do insist on though is that the local community within a one-and-a-half minute walk away, also have access to the AED.

“The figures speak for themselves – without an AED, the chance of surviving cardiac arrest is five per cent, but with an AED, the chance is 50 per cent.”

A letter from Pumping Marvellous will soon be sent to all big businesses in East Lancashire, asking for donations.

Already Manchester-based Co-Operative Funeral Care have donated over £4,000 for three AEDS, two of which will be given to Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn.

Nick said: “One AED will be at the school, and the other will be at the Harrison Playing Fields in Lammack, which is used by several different schools with thousands of pupils.”

“Part of this campaign is also about taking the fear out of first aid. A lot of people are scared about using AEDs because they think they might get it wrong, but it’s not possible.

“It’s important to know that if the machine detects a heart rhythm, it won’t shock.”

Here is a link to the full article

Pumping Marvellous Heart Schools

Help us raise enough funds for your childs school and we will buy an AED (defibrillator) and train your teachers and pupils on basic CPR and the operation of their AED.

AED and CPR a match made in heaven

Fantastic News – New AED for Rossmore Primary School including setup, teacher and pupil CPR and AED training, no cost apart from some innovative fundraising by Zoe Terry and Team. We would of course entertain other schools to receive this service. Thanks the team at Pumping Marvellous.

This article talks through the effects of intensive and prolonged exercise without recuperation and shouldn’t be confused with regular exercise.

Too much exercise can scar the heart and increase the risk of sudden death, experts claim. Research shows that extreme endurance sports such as marathons, triathlons and long-distance bicycle races can cause structural changes to the heart and large arteries.

Usually recovery occurs within a week. But for some individuals, repetitive injury over months and years of training and competition can lead to patches of fibrosis, or scarring, in the heart, say scientists. This can lead to an increased likelihood of potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythms.

Dr James O’Keefe, from Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, US, who led a review of the evidence, said: “Physical exercise, though not a drug, possesses many traits of a powerful pharmacologic agent. A routine of daily physical activity can be highly effective for prevention and treatment of many diseases, including coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, and obesity.

“However, as with any pharmacologic agent, a safe upper-dose limit potentially exists, beyond which the adverse effects of physical exercise, such as musculoskeletal trauma and cardiovascular stress, may outweigh its benefits.” The research is published in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Endurance sports such as ultramarathon running or professional cycling have been associated with as much as a five-fold increased risk of atrial fibrillation, one kind of abnormal heart rhythm, say the scientists. Excessive sustained exercise may also be linked to coronary artery calcification, and dysfunctional and stiffened large arteries.

One study showed that around 12% of apparently healthy marathon runners had signs of heart scarring. Their chances of suffering a heart-disease event was also significantly higher than average. A famous victim of excess exercise may have been legendary US ultramarathon runner Micah True who died suddenly while on a routine 12-mile training run on March 27, it is claimed. True, nicknamed Caballo Blanco (Spanish for “white horse”), would run as much as 100 miles in one day. After death at 58, his heart was found to be enlarged and scarred. He died from a lethal heart rhythm irregularity.

Pioneering new heart treatment

Carl Jordan, of Tunstall, below, is one of just 96 patients from 30 hospitals worldwide to take part in a trial in which he has been fitted with a pacemaker-like device to stimulate his heart.

The device – fitted under Mr Jordan’s collarbone during surgery at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital – aims to reduce the size of his heart. Mr Jordan, who has undergone 12 operations since his first heart attack in 2001, is currently unable to walk more than 70 yards without becoming breathless. He said: “It wasn’t an easy decision to take part in the study but one which I hope will improve my quality of life. I don’t mind being a guinea pig if it helps me, and potentially helps others.

“It was a privilege to be chosen but also frightening.” At the moment my heart is quite big and if it gets any bigger I am in serious trouble. The idea is that it will help shrink the heart so it doesn’t have to work so hard. In turn that will help my breathing.”

Mr Jordan suffered his first heart attack 11 years ago while working as a station manager for the ambulance service. He said: “I have dealt with hundreds of heart attack victims and I knew exactly what was happening to me.”

But just under two weeks after being discharged from hospital, he was readmitted after his health deteriorated. On the wards, Mr Jordan, who lives in May Avenue with wife Angela suffered another cardiac arrest. Mrs Jordan, a catering assistant, said: “We were told that he might not pull through as he was in such a bad way. It was such a scary time.”

Over the years he has undergone a dozen surgical procedures, including open heart surgery. He takes 34 tablets a day and needs to keep oxygen in the house and car.

Now the family are hoping the device – which is connected to the vagus nerve – will help improve his life. The device uses electrical pulses to stimulate the nerve to help improve cardiac function and life expectancy. It is aimed at protecting the heart from the effects of adrenaline, which causes the heart to work faster and enlarge.

Dr Jay Wright, a consultant cardiologist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, is leading the studyand he carried the operation on Mr Jordan. Dr Wright said: “This is a first in man study and if successful, will improve the quality of life for heart failure patients in the UK.”