Mum-of-four saved by Essex & Herts Air Ambulance joins appeal for more bystander CPR in lead up to International Women’s Day

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is urging people across the region to remember the importance of bystander CPR this International Women’s Day (8 March) as research suggests women are 27% less likely to have CPR done on them.

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has teamed up with charity Bra Off Defib On to highlight the stark disparity between levels of CPR performed on women compared to men. Research suggests anxiety over touching a woman’s chest or being accused of inappropriate behaviour hold people back.

Each year, around 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the UK, with survival rates below 10%. Essex & Herts Air Ambulance attended 570 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests last year. Every minute without CPR reduces the chance of survival by 10% making early intervention critical.

No one knows this more than mum-of-four Alison, who was looking after her two grandsons when she collapsed. Luckily for Alison, her daughter Georgia, who usually would have been at work, was there to help. When she found her mum unresponsive on the floor, Georgia dialled 999 and began CPR. Within minutes, first responders arrived and took over, calling in the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance who performed an emergency anaesthetic before transferring Alison to Royal Papworth Hospital.

Alison credits her survival to the emergency services crews and her daughter Georgia’s quick actions. As Georgia shares: “I had this lingering guilt, wondering if I did everything right, but hearing from the team that my CPR had helped keep her brain functioning brought me some peace. They told us that the CPR was so good, her brain didn’t realise her heart had stopped.”

Paramedic Adam Carr who attended Alison and who leads Essex & Hert Air Ambulance’s CPR Smart™ programme, offering free CPR and defibrillator training to schools across Essex and Hertfordshire, said:

“I understand people feel nervous about getting it wrong – and that seems to increase when the patient is female and people worry about having to expose their chest – but bystander CPR can mean the difference between life and death. It’s so important that people give it a go. We go to all too many scenes where no one has felt able to intervene and it’s simply too late, which is devastating”.

Alison, who has been a supporter of the air ambulance charity ever since her recovery, said: “I was one of the lucky ones. I hate to think about what could have happened if my daughter wasn’t there to give me CPR. If she had hesitated or been unsure. I’m so grateful for each moment I get with my daughters and grandkids.”

Jenny Legg, a First Aid trainer, who started Bra Off Defib On when she realised how much confusion there was around performing CPR on women, said:

“There’s too much anxiety about using a defibrillator on women in particular. To place the pads correctly, you need to expose the chest and remove a bra – and that’s okay. In an emergency, proper pad placement saves lives, and hesitation can cost them.”

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is dedicated to advancing emergency pre-hospital care, continually investing in research, innovation and education through its Centre for Excellence to improve patient care, including its CPR Smart™ programme.

A new film of Adam Carr and Jenny Legg in conversation about CPR, will be released ahead of International Woman’s Day. To find out more or to donate, please visit ehaat.org  and for advice on how to do CPR: https://ehaat.org/life-saving-first-aid/