14
October
2015
|
17:30
Europe/London
Manchester bid to wrest CPR relay world record from New York
- 701 volunteers needed to break an official world record
- One person suffers a cardiac arrest every six minutes in the UK and 12 young people die every week from undiagnosed cardiac conditions
Resuscitation
The University of Manchester will attempt to break a Guinness World Record next Friday with more than 700 people performing CPR on campus.
One person suffers a cardiac arrest every six minutes in the UK and 12 young people die every week from undiagnosed cardiac conditions, so the attempt, which is in support of European Restart a Heart Day, is seeking to train a minimum of 701 people in this vital technique.
Training to save a life only takes 15 minutes and each volunteer taking part will be required to perform chest compressions for one minute before the next person takes over. The current record is held by the American Heart Association who managed to get 700 people to take part in New York in June 2015.
The record attempt is the brainchild of senior nursing lecturer, Patricia Conaghan and Professor Christopher, Cutts Associate Dean for Social Responsibility, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. Patricia said: “This really is a chance to do something amazing – setting an official World Record and learning a skill which might help you save someone’s life one day. There’s not many people who can say they’ve done that on a Friday in Manchester!”
The event is being supported by The University of Manchester Students’ Union, Resuscitation Council (UK); Laerdal, CityCo, Cardiac Smart, Hand on Heart, and the European Resuscitation Council.
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This really is a chance to do something amazing – setting an official World Record and learning a skill which might help you save someone’s life one day. There’s not many people who can say they’ve done that on a Friday in Manchester!
Patricia Conaghan
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Volunteers can be of any age and previous experience. Refreshments are being provided on the day as well as a DJ playing music specially selected to help people keep the rhythm.
A Guinness representative will be on hand and independent judges will be keeping an eye out to make sure everything goes well. People can turn up to University Place on Oxford Road at any point during the attempt which runs between 7am and 7pm on Friday 16 October or they can book on using the Eventbrite page.
The University of Manchester has a strong commitment to supporting resuscitation through the deployment of defibrillators across campus and training initiatives including a student volunteering project. This record attempt will enable the training of even more people.
Patricia added: “We’ve got a huge range of people taking part including the student rowing team, NHS staff and even people attending a gig at the Manchester Academy straight after, so it’s a really inclusive event.
“Most importantly, this skill could be needed by anyone at any time, so for the sake of 15 minutes of training it’s an invaluable technique to know.”