Historical Notes

• Launched St Andrews Day 1987
• Objectives: Provide equipment to help prevent sudden death from heart attack and to organise training for members of the public in basic life support (mouth to mouth breathing and cardiac massage)
• First training class 9/2/88
• Defibrillators installed in local ambulances 1/3/88
• First life saved May 1988
• Citizen training classes held in St Andrews (Madras Community School, Kilrymont Road)Training conducted by volunteers.  Sessions are for up to 60 people.  Each session lasts two hours, which is long enough to teach basic skills.  Public are encouraged to return for “refreshers”.
• Also train secondary pupils.  Whole of 4th year in Waid Academy, 3rd year in Madras College and 6th formers from St Leonards School undergo training.
• Approximately 10,000 people have been trained.
• We are now affiliated to Heartstart UK, a national body sponsored by the British Heart Foundation to promote community training in CPR
• The initial scheme launched here was used as a pilot for a proposed national scheme to provide defibrillators in ambulances.  Following the success of our scheme, Heartstart Scotland was launched on 1/10/88.

The results of analysis of 1476 cases where resuscitation was attempted were published in 1996.  (Cobb SM et al.  Survival of 1476 patients initially resuscitated from out of hospital cardiac arrest.  BMJ 1996; 312: 1633-7).  The main conclusions of this report were:

• Bystanders can almost double the survival rate by initiating CPR, but every one minute of delay reduces survival chances by 7%
• 40% of those defibrillated out of hospital are subsequently discharged form hospital with no neurological disability, and nearly 70% are alive four years later.