Latest news with #GoodSAM
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
East of England Ambulance 999 callers to get CPR video help
People calling 999 in the East of England to report a cardiac arrest will be the first in the UK to be offered live video support from advanced the call, staff in the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) control room will coach them on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) via a video streaming follows a successful trial in Denmark that improved the bystanders' hand position and the speed and depth of Council UK said when resuscitation was attempted following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, fewer than one in 10 people survived to hospital discharge and EEAST hopes the pilot will improve survival rates. Liam Sagi, an advanced paramedic, said survival had not "really changed in 40 years".EAAST serves Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and said it carried out resuscitation on 3,500 patients per year and its crews could restart more than 1,000 of the hearts of those patients, but that bystanders were resuscitation immediately could quadruple the chances of survival, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Sagi said the public needed to know what to do."We know that less than half of the public have learnt CPR and for every minute that goes by without getting CPR, your chances of survival drop by 10%," he said. Bystanders do not need to download an app. During the 999 calls, paramedics send a text message to them via the GoodSAM video caller clicks on a link within that message to initiate the video while they are still on the caller and paramedic can see each other them in the two-way video said this allowed the paramedic to assess the situation visually and provide guidance on CPR technique until the ambulance service arrived. Mr Sagi said: "We know that our call handlers do a fantastic chance of coaching people through CPR over the telephone but there are trials internationally that show we can really improve the quality of the CPR delivered."He said they would be looking at things like hand position and chest compression depth."We want to understand if this helps people in really traumatic situations. Does it help confidence? Does it help improve quality of CPR, and does it help the person process things after it's happened?"EEAST said video streaming worked best when there was more than one bystander present, so that one person could hold the phone while the other performed CPR. It said success would depend on video connectivity and the person being familiar with video calls. John Newman, a community first responder from Epping, Essex, said: "Sometimes when we arrive, folk are so nervous they might hurt the person on the floor, they just stand back and watch apprehensively."If they're already lying there, they're already in a life-threatening situation, so they should just get on and do it."Essex and Herts Air Ambulance is helping to provide critical care paramedics for the scheme. Dr Gareth Grier, associate medical director said: "Every day we see cases where high quality CPR has made a life-changing difference to patients."This project will make sure that every patient gets the best chance of a good outcome."NHS Charities Together has funded the scheme with a £142,000 grant. The video stream will also be used to coach bystanders on how to use defibrillators Newman said some people were "very apprehensive" about using one, but that that the quicker they used it, the more likely they were to save a life."The video will overcome the apprehension right at the beginning," he said."Our call handlers will tell you where the nearest defibrillator is. Someone else can go and get it, while you carry on with the chest compressions."The out-of-hospital cardiac arrest desk will run four days a week, from 07:00 to 19:00. Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Norfolk fire service using GoodSAM video app to combat wildfires
Video technology was being used to battle a surge of fires in open spaces during the hot and dry start to the the first six months of this year, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) had been called to 101 incidents that it referred to as "fires in the open". That is more than three times as high as the 29 in the same period last Mason, NFRS group manager for operational response, said call handlers in the control room were using the GoodSAM mobile app to see what resources needed to be deployed."It allows our operators to see the incident in front of them through the person's mobile phone," he said. Explaining the process to BBC Radio Norfolk, he said: "We'll send them [members of the public] a text message with a link and that basically turns their camera into a live stream so we can see the incident and what that allows us to do is, very quickly and dynamically, to move additional fire appliances towards that incident if we can see it is escalating or growing quite quickly."And on the flip side, if the incident is smaller scale, then obviously we can manage our response to that sort of incident."So we're working really hard to manage the risk and put the appropriate resources on the incident as quickly as possible." Mr Mason said the service had seen a "steady increase in incidents across the county" with 15 open fires since Monday. The spike came amid the driest start to a year in England since 1976, with Anglian Water stating that a hosepipe ban "could still be needed" in the region this Mason continued: "We're seeing a really broad combination of incidents that are involving careless disposal of things like barbecues, cigarettes or glass bottles, through to campfires and bonfires that people are having."Also, some unfortunate incidents relating to farming machinery hitting flints or rocks in the ground and inadvertently causing a fire in a field as they are trying to harvest." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
GoodSAM alert app introduced by South Central Ambulance Service
A system that alerts trained volunteers to medical emergencies nearby is being introduced by an ambulance Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is using the Good Smartphone Activated Medics app - known as GoodSAM - which uses mobile GPS technology to message volunteers within 500m of an is hoped the responders could then begin CPR before an ambulance Harmer, operations manager of SCAS, said it could "dramatically increase the chances of a positive outcome" for cardiac arrest patients. The early delivery of CPR and defibrillation is critical in improving survival rates from cardiac arrest. Every minute without intervention reduces the chance of survival by up to 10%, SCAS first phase of GoodSAM has been introduced in the SCAS area - Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire - as well as Isle of Wight Ambulance Service healthcare professionals and clinically trained individuals are able to aim is to then open it up to trained public volunteers from the registration process includes verification of credentials and training to ensure all responders meet the required Hamer, operations manager for SCAS, said: "By enabling trained responders to reach patients faster, we can dramatically increase the chances of a positive outcome. "This is about saving lives, and we are proud to be part of this initiative."This project has been partly funded by South Central Ambulance Charity, which supports SCAS in enhancing emergency care. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Age
02-07-2025
- Health
- The Age
The 10-minute search for the device that saved a Sydney man's life
Rob Duggan was on his morning coffee run two weeks ago when he saw a man collapse in the distance. 'I could see straight away that he wasn't breathing,' said Duggan, a police officer on parental leave with his five-month-old daughter, Audrene. 'I parked my daughter up about five metres away, put the brake on the pram ... and I just got down and started CPR.' Dharm Singh Hooda, an otherwise healthy 66-year-old grandfather, had just finished his daily morning walk around Elara Sporting Fields in Marsden Park when he went into cardiac arrest. Duggan's quick thinking, and an off-duty paramedic who raced to the scene after receiving an alert on the GoodSAM app, kept Hooda alive. He had performed CPR many times in 15 years as a cop, but this was the first time someone had pulled through. 'I feel pretty happy he's on the mend,' he said. Hooda is now recovering in Westmead Hospital. He is in a rare club – only 10 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest survive. His cardiologist, Dr Pramesh Kovoor, said Hooda's condition was improving, but he had suffered neurological damage because of a delay in defibrillation. 'He's expected to be in the hospital probably for two to three weeks in total, in contrast to somebody who would have required maybe a few days in the hospital if they received a shock within three minutes,' Kovoor said.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
The 10-minute search for the device that saved a Sydney man's life
Rob Duggan was on his morning coffee run two weeks ago when he saw a man collapse in the distance. 'I could see straight away that he wasn't breathing,' said Duggan, a police officer on parental leave with his five-month-old daughter, Audrene. 'I parked my daughter up about five metres away, put the brake on the pram ... and I just got down and started CPR.' Dharm Singh Hooda, an otherwise healthy 66-year-old grandfather, had just finished his daily morning walk around Elara Sporting Fields in Marsden Park when he went into cardiac arrest. Duggan's quick thinking, and an off-duty paramedic who raced to the scene after receiving an alert on the GoodSAM app, kept Hooda alive. He had performed CPR many times in 15 years as a cop, but this was the first time someone had pulled through. 'I feel pretty happy he's on the mend,' he said. Hooda is now recovering in Westmead Hospital. He is in a rare club – only 10 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest survive. His cardiologist, Dr Pramesh Kovoor, said Hooda's condition was improving, but he had suffered neurological damage because of a delay in defibrillation. 'He's expected to be in the hospital probably for two to three weeks in total, in contrast to somebody who would have required maybe a few days in the hospital if they received a shock within three minutes,' Kovoor said.
