At the 21st EFL Championship at the Monileux Stadium on the 24th of February this year, violence ensued after Birmingham City’s second goal, but let’s face it, this is nothing new and is sadly an all too familiar story. So what is it about this particular hooligan temper-tantrum that made it newsworthy? For once it wasn’t supposed “un-aggravated police violence,” or a fan being seriously injured due the fighting, instead, it’s about how one of our boys in blue saved an elderly fan from death who just happened to be nearby.

A Wolves supporter in his 70’s and his wife were heading home from the game when the wife went into panic shortly after 22h00. The couple were riding on the top deck of a 559 bus when the man stopped breathing and failed to respond to his frantic wife. The bus driver was alerted and stopped his bus near Broad Street, close to where the rival fans were fighting over the game.

Police were at the scene, struggling to control the violent fans when one of the policemen was informed about the incident on the 559 bus. He left the scene immediately and dashed on board the bus, removing all his safety gear: his helmet, his vest and his utility belt. He began chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, only allowing another officer to take over when he was beyond exhaustion. Soon after, an ambulance arrived and loaded the Wolves fan on board, rushing him to the nearest accident and emergency room. The paramedics radioed that the man had no pulse and were advised to use a defibrillator on him. The defibrillator delivered an electric shock to the man which restarted his heart with a faint pulse and he was brought back to life!

The whole incident, from the wife’s panic to the ambulance arriving and escorting the fan to hospital, was reported to have lasted half an hour. If it wasn’t for the officer’s tireless effort, the fan’s brain would have been starved of oxygen and he would no longer be alive. The policeman was a hero in the true sense of the word: first trying to stop the violence, then saving the man’s life!

So what can we learn from this story? Not to put the heroism of the officer on the back burner, but perhaps this incident will show all companies that service large numbers of people, such as public transportation services, that they need to be prepared for the world’s biggest killer. With a variety of conditions resulting in heart attacks, and no way to predict when they will happen, the time has come for defibrillators and well stocked first aid kits to be on hand on every bus, train, and station and for all officials to be trained to use them.

Sudden cardiac arrest affects millions of people worldwide every year. It’s estimated that over 30,000 adults suffer from cardiac arrest in the UK annually. The statistics speak for themselves: chances of survival out of hospital are incredibly low at less than 10%. In fact, your chance of surviving sudden cardiac arrest decreases by 10% with every minute that passes. To put that into perspective, on average, ambulance response times in the UK are above 11 minutes.

Sudden cardiac arrest can affect anyone, anywhere, anytime, regardless of how young or fit they may be. An AED is a device that automatically analyses heart rhythms and advises the operator to deliver a shock, if the heart is in a fatal heart rhythm. AEDs are safe and will not shock anyone who is not in a fatal heart rhythm. It’s therefore possible to protect loved ones, customers, students, or your colleagues simply by having an on-site defibrillator.

Martek Lifecare is on the NHS procurement framework for the whole of the UK, as well as being recommended supplier to Ambulance Service programs for Lifeline automated external defibrillators (AEDs).  The Lifeline defibrillator range has been proven by independent studies, to be the easiest range of AEDs available on the market for untrained bystanders and trained professionals to use. The University of Illinois Medical Center deemed a Lifeline AED to have the highest success rate, at 92%, of five leading defibrillators when it came to a test subject being able to use them to administer an effective shock. An AED evaluation by West Midlands Fire Service resulted in a top score of 100/100 for the Lifeline VIEW, whilst an independent study by first aid leaders Centric, recommend the Lifeline VIEW as being the best device for Public Access Defibrillation schemes in 2016 and equally thus, is the best device for workplace installations for 2016.

Contact Martek Lifecare today to find out more, or take a look at the Martek Lifecare range of fantastic offers online, available 24/7 at https://www.martek-lifecare.com/