Passengers travelling through Gatwick Airport get taught the benefits of CPR by professionals from Surrey and Sussex Healthcare

The resuscitation team, critical care outreach team and clinical nurse specialists, were on hand to show members of the public how to deliver cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), use a defibrillator and learn more about the significant role we can all play in increasing the survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Restart a Heart Day is an annual mass CPR training event led by Resuscitation Council UK, which aims to increase the number of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year and it is predicted that thousands of lives could be saved every year if CPR was taught more widely.

Every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by up to 10%. But when someone has a cardiac arrest, performing immediate CPR can help double their chance of survival in some cases.

Throughout the day, the team from SASH were stationed in a cordoned-off area of the departure lounge, where they taught the benefits of bystander CPR to over 150 holidaymakers and jetsetters as they waited to board their flights.

The volunteers included everyone from children to pensioners, who were all asked to perform one minute of CPR on a manikin and use the public access defibrillator in order to receive a certificate.

Therese Sidney, lead resuscitation officer at SASH, said: “It was so encouraging to witness the eagerness of the general public to learn the essential skill of CPR. Survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are low across the UK, so it’s crucial that as many people as possible become confident in intervening and playing their part in the chain of survival.”

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Anyone can be affected by a sudden cardiac arrest at any time, and without intervention, the person will quickly die. When someone collapses and stops breathing normally, it is important to quickly call 999, perform CPR and use a defibrillator. This gives the person their best chance of survival.