Restart A Heart Day 2014

We are proud to announce our second Restart A Heart Day, this time in cooperation with the community of Langnau am Albis and Samariter Verein Region Thalwil who has agreed to join us in this effort to raise awareness about the importance of life saving CPR.

Restart A Heart Day is an initiative of the European Resuscitation Council and was celebrated for the first time in 2014 when we also participated and ran a successful event in Adliswil.

Since the date coincides with the Swiss schools’ fall break, we thought it better to adjust to our Swiss neighbourhood and are therefore very happy and grateful that the administration of Langnau supports our efforts and invited us to run the event on a day where we are able to invite and welcome as many as possible.

Why Restart A Heart and why learn CPR? CPR is the life saving measure need for someone suffering from “Sudden Cardiac Arrest”, SCA. Sudden Cardiac Arrest, also called “Sudden Cardiac Death” can affect everyone, young or old: Alexander Dale One, Piermario Morosini und Fabrice Muamba are just a few of many famous names, all of whom were young professional athletes who suffered from sudden cardiac arrest while performing their professional sport. Most of us think that cardiac arrest affects older people but actually, professional athletes are at a particularly high risk of suffering cardiac arrest, especially triathletes and football players. In France, every year, an estimated 1000 to 2000 athletes die of sudden cardiac arrest.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the most common cause of death in the Western world and causes more deaths that breast cancer, lung cancer and AIDS together. It kills 32 times more people than road traffic accidents. In Switzerland, every hour a person dies of sudden cardiac arrest, 10`000 a year. And only few survive because bystanders don’t know what to do. Did you know that correct chest compressions can double the chance of survival? According to the Schweizerische Herzstiftung only 1 to 2% of the adult population in Switzerland know how to perform CPR.

So, what happens in “Sudden Cardiac Death”? The heart suddenly and without prior warning stops working correctly, the heart muscles starts to shiver and no longer pumps blood through the body, causing the person to collapse, he doesn’t respond anymore and shows no more signs of life: he needs to be resuscitated immediately.

Do you know how to save a life? 30 minutes are all it takes to learn how to do that!

So join us on October 25, 2014 from 10 until 14 o’clock on the Dorfplatz in Langnau am Albis.

Learn CPR, Save a Life! Experience how easy it is to learn life saving skills, have fun and win prizes!
<br/=”line-height:50%”>By the way, Fabrice Muamba survived his 78-minute long cardiac arrest due to the fast and efficient help of first aiders at the side of the pitch. A successful survival story always begins with “normal” people who become heroes – life-savers!

Posted on October 09, 2014 by Luitgard Holzleg

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