WEST Devon Connect teams up with the South Western Ambulance Service in Bere Alston on Tuesday November 27 to seek volunteers who are willing to train as a ?Community First Responder?. Representatives from the service will be attending West Devon Connect?s regular outreach surgery at Hope Cottage Café from 10am to noon to give information on becoming a ?Community First Responder? and about the scheme itself. The Connect surgeries are manned by customer service advisers from West Devon Borough Council who help residents find out about scores of council services they may never have known existed. Regular Connect surgeries are also held in Hatherleigh, North Tawton, Chagford and Lifton. The Connect team is often joined by other agencies and the Bere Alston event will be the first time the ambulance service has attended. Community First Responders are trained to attend designated emergency calls received by the NHS ambulance service, providing critical first aid until an emergency ambulance response arrives. Coronary heart disease is the largest single cause of death in England. More than 1.4 million people suffer from angina and 275,000 people have a heart attack annually. Around 12,000 of these attacks occur in a public place. Research has shown that if a cardiac arrest victim is given aid by a properly trained person with a defibrillator in the first minutes of collapse, their chances of survival immediately rise to 85%. In cardiac arrest situation the first eight minutes is the critical time for the victim. In areas where it is difficult for emergency services to reach the call out within that time, volunteers ? Community First Responders ? who live and work in the community can provide a critical lifeline to heart attack victims.
