Celebrations for the National Sport Day at Katara – the Cultural Village did not only focus on maintaining an active lifestyle, but also opened up opportunities for children and parents to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a simple, yet valuable lifesaving method.
As part of a national programme, which was launched two weeks ago, the “CPR Saves Lives” initiative “was met with enthusiasm” by members of the public mostly children and their parents, Hamad International Training Centre (HITC) director Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen told Gulf Times on Friday.
Dr Saifeldeen, who is also chairman of the CPR Saves Lives programme, said he believes the participation of both parent and child will help inculcate the value of CPR to children, especially during emergency cases.
“Aside from training people on how to stay healthy to avoid heart disease, we also recognise that at times, unfortunate incidents can happen to people with either known or unknown heart disease; they can suddenly suffer from cardiac arrest.
“It can happen at home, at work, along the streets, or during outdoor events. What we are teaching is the principle message that every member of the public, including children, can save lives,” Saifeldeen explained.
“What people should do first is call for help by dialing 999. The next step is to administer CPR until help arrives. When someone goes into cardiac arrest, administering CPR within minutes can save someone’s life.”
According to Saifeldeen, many researches have confirmed that CPR “is the best thing a person can do” to optimise a cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival. “For every minute without CPR, there is a 10% reduction of survival. The best ambulances in the world can arrive with five to seven minutes but without CPR, any chance of survival is gone,” he noted.
Asked about the public’s response to the CPR Saves Lives initiative, Saifeldeen said: “The activities we launched at Katara in line with Qatar National Sport Day are part of a bigger programme and we thought this would be an opportunity to do it in a fun way. We were pleased with our engagement with the public and I believe the term CPR will stick to their minds.
As part of its mandate, Saifeldeen said the HITC provides training on lifesaving measures such as CPR to a range of sectors, including members of the public, healthcare providers, and other professionals. Since its inception, the centre has awarded more than 200,000 training certificates, he said.
“We are planning is to develop a national network of CPR trainers from different healthcare providers aside from HMC. The plan is to integrate CPR awareness to any activity under the CPR Saves Lives umbrella. The programme will cover schools, companies and other organisations,” he added.