In India, it is estimated that about 5-6 lakh people die every year due to sudden cardiac death (SCD), with a good proportion of them being under the age of 50. In fact, India and other developing countries are facing an epidemic of cardiovascular disease driven by changing lifestyles. This concern was also highlighted and stressed by the recently published Lancet Commission on SCD.

Dr Kumar Narayanan, Senior Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at Medicover Hospitals, Hyderabad, and an acknowledged expert in the field of SCD was the Deputy Chair of this consortium. He states that “the fact that survival from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) remains lower than 10% in most parts of the world is unacceptable. This Commission places strong emphasis on the need to make communities an active partners in responding to SCA, maximising bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and public access to automated external defibrillator (AED) use, in order to improve survival after SCA. Research has shown that with immediate CPR and AED use after an SCA, survival can be improved from <10% to 70%.”

Recognizing this urgent need, Medicover Hospitals is proactively launching a nationwide CPR training campaign- The “Heart Savers: CPR Training for a healthy world”- is a harmonic initiative that aims to educate and empower individuals with the life-saving skill of CPR. Regarding this campaign initiative, Dr. Sharath Reddy, Executive Director of Medicover Hospitals explains, “CPR – or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation – is an emergency lifesaving procedure performed when the heart stops beating — a condition known as cardiac arrest. The goal of CPR is to keep the blood circulating to crucial body organs by mechanically compressing the chest. Immediate CPR can improve the chances of survival after sudden cardiac arrest by 5 or even 10-fold.”

Under the umbrella of “Heart Savers: CPR Training for a Healthy World”, Medicover Hospitals will conduct a series of free CPR training sessions, especially focusing on “hands-only CPR’ which emphasizes the crucial importance of chest compressions as compared to rescue breaths. Volunteers will learn the skill of effective chest compressions from certified experts of Medicover Hospitals’ nationwide network. “More than 30,000 people in India are expected to be trained under my guidance”, says Dr. Satheesh Kumar Kailasm, who is also the trainer and the Group Medical Director, of Medicover Group Of Hospitals.

“In an SCA, effective CPR must be performed within minutes in order to have any chance to save the individual. It is almost impossible for an ambulance or emergency medical team to reach the location of an SCA within minutes. By teaching and training ordinary people to recognise SCA and perform emergency CPR, crucial time can be bought, keeping the victim alive till emergency services arrive or he’s taken to hospital. In countries where such bystander CPR is widespread, survival rates after SCA are dramatically higher,” Dr Kumar adds.

Dr. Anil Krishna G, Chairman and Managing Director of Medicover Hospitals, India, an actively practicing cardiologist himself, said, “It is of utmost importance to understand the value of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation). At Medicover Hospitals we are working on the mission to educate citizens and the public and no one should die from sudden cardiac arrest. We will roll out the campaign in phases. Firstly, we will start it in all 25 hospitals of the Medicover network. A dedicated link will be created on the Medicover website for volunteers to enroll in this training. Post completion of training, they will receive a certificate. The EMS, cardiology, and critical care departments in all our centers will play an active role. Our teams in various locations will actively reach out to the communities to spread awareness about SCA and maximise participation. We are also open to collaborating with like-minded organisations to expand the reach of this initiative.”

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