EEAST Heart Lead, Ron Ridge tells us about EEAST Heart and why he joined

EEAST Heart Lead, Ron Ridge tells us about EEAST Heart and why he joined

Basic life support can be life saving and that is why our EEAST Heart training is so important. We spoke to Ron Ridge, EEAST Heart lead, to find out a little more about EEAST Heart, why he joined and what is involved with the training.

What is EEAST Heart?

EEAST heart is the initiative from EEAST, with the first responders, and it's to extend to the community the ability to do CPR, work with an automatic external defibrillators (AED), do some dealing with bleeding and also to work on the choking.

Many AED's are out there and we want the public to be able to use them because it makes a big difference in saving lives. With the introduction of bleed kits, to give people the benefit of some information of what they can use in that area is also important.

What is an EEAST Heart trainer?

So, a EEAST Heart trainer is somebody with training to teach in the community. They are people that are enthusiastic and passionate about teaching people to use defibrillators and how to do CPR.
It's an amazing thing to help save a life, and EEAST Heart is the initiative that we have that really does make a difference. I've travelled all over the six counties and we have instructors everywhere, so we will do the best to help communities and this training can be through villages cubs, scouts, guides, young farmers and more.

Last week we went to a preschool, and all of them at the end will get an EEAST Heart certificate to say, not that they've been trained formally, but they've participated in something that is actually great and gives him the benefit of being able to save this skills into place, to let people deliver life saving treatment before the ambulance arrived.

Why did you become an EEAST Heart trainer?

I became a trainer because I am passionate about it. My one of my sons resuscitated his brother, after we taught him through scouts and as far as I was concerned, it was an amazing situation to be in. I think that small people can do amazing things for big people, even just by putting them into recovery position and I see the benefits of that.

We had one child who went home from a beavers meeting, found mum unconscious, put her in the recovery position, dialled 999 and open the door for the ambulance. Now that came directly from that training. A life was saved. Child was left with a parent and more importantly, it's just something that we do that's really, really, really useful.

Why do you think CPR is important?

When delivering CPR, it’s the base skill that almost every should have. I think if you've done it once, it will never leave you.

People don't get frightened if they've been trained. Now it can be done by anybody at any time and when you call 999, the ambulance service will talk you through it.
But if you've done it, even if you only done it on a dummy, it means that you're not scared of it.

Using an AED is the same. We're giving people the benefit of being able to go in there with some knowledge and it's knowledge that will never leave you.

People have said to us that when they had to give CPR, the fact that we taught them how to do it meant that when they did have to do it in real, they walked away feeling that they delivered what was due and what that patient deserved. And when we turn up, it's a brilliant thing to have someone doing CPR.

If you're attending one of the EEAST Heart training sessions, what's involved?

Normally you book onto the session or some of the public sessions you can just turn up. What we do is once you're there, we'll make sure that everything's covered to make sure it's safe environment for you to be taught in and then we will start to teach. We'll start off by maybe showing a video, sometimes we just do it by talking and we will teach you how to do CPR. You actually practice on a dummy that we have and a resuscitation doll and you'll get the chance to use an AED. We can discuss putting on bandages and how to stop bleeding, and we also will teach you something to do with choking.

We have to be careful because some of the things that we have to teach can only really be done on somebody that really is ill. But when we use our dummies, we can make sure we can teach properly and even if you aren't able to take part physically, just to be there and be able to coach somebody else because you've seen how it's done is important.

I think all of us, as sort of patients at some stage, we deserved as much as we can have someone out there that can help us.