Cardiac arrests: Why every second counts to save lives #health #news #scotland

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:04]Ambulance emergency, is the patient breathing?

[00:00:06]>> Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a brutally time-critical emergency.

[00:00:12]>> It's really important that CPR starts immediately and a defibrillator is brought as quickly as possible.

[00:00:19]>> If there's a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now.

[00:00:22]>> Those nearby must act fast.

[00:00:26]>> Keep doing the chest compressions over and over. Don't give up.

[00:00:29]>> What did you shock him six times and while we were waiting on the ambulance coming, [music] six times it told us to shock him.

[00:00:35]>> When cardiac arrest happens, every second counts.

[00:00:40]>> I owe my life to my wife, my son, and call him my neighbor.

[00:00:46]>> I can help you with that and I'll [music] tell you how to do it.

[00:00:48]Okay, what did you do to the emergency?

[00:01:02]>> After 25 years working offshore, Paul Scott had started a new life running a fish merchant business in his hometown of Anstruther.

[00:01:10]Just weeks into the job, he came home one evening feeling unwell.

[00:01:14]>> Can you talk me through that night?

[00:01:17]>> I mean, I know from Kayleigh telling me, I had my tea, um and after my tea, just said I didn't feel quite right.

[00:01:29]Didn't didn't get too much sympathy at that point, I don't think, but as things progressed and I kept going on about it, um >> Still didn't get much sympathy.

[00:01:39]>> [laughter] >> Even >> Their son, Derry, was also at home.

[00:01:43]>> He came in phase work and he just said he'd lost his mojo and felt like he'd lost his breath somewhere in the day and couldn't quite get it back.

[00:01:51]>> And he said, "I just can't get comfy."

[00:01:53]That's what he kept saying, "I can't get comfy."

[00:01:55]Um and you know, being a middle-aged man, I could I was on Google checking heart attack um symptoms. It's like, you know, have you got pains down your arms? I'm like, no, not really. Any pains in your jaw?

[00:02:10]Through various various symptoms, didn't have any of them.

[00:02:13]Um And and I did see at that point, well, you're not having a heart attack, which technically he wasn't.

[00:02:23]>> Paul wasn't having a heart attack. He was about to go into cardiac arrest.

[00:02:29]A heart attack is a circulation problem where blood flow to the heart is blocked, [music] but a cardiac arrest is an electrical problem causing the heart to suddenly stop pumping blood.

[00:02:41]The person collapses and becomes unresponsive. The brain and vital organs are starved of oxygen and blood. Without immediate CPR, lack of oxygen will cause irreversible damage within minutes.

[00:02:56]>> His whole body just [music] went rigid, you know, he was he was his hands were like claws. He was up on his toes. Um And and I knew then that there was something seriously wrong. So, I >> [music] >> phoned 999, put my phone on loudspeaker, and threw it on the floor.

[00:03:10]>> Kelly and Paul have been foster parents for years, so regularly have comprehensive first aid training.

[00:03:18]>> In the moment that he stopped breathing, what was going through your head at that time?

[00:03:23]>> Nothing went through my head. I just just just autopilot, you know, uh first aid training kicked in.

[00:03:29]As as soon as soon as I realized he wasn't breathing, I knew I had to start CPR straight away. Um and just started doing CPR.

[00:03:37]>> [snorts] >> And then I was just autopilot, you know, thinking, right, I need to get the defibrillator because he's not breathing, so send Eric to get the defibrillator. I need someone to come and help me. Who can I Who can can help me?

[00:03:51]>> Help came in the form of their neighbor, Colin Muirhead, who had been celebrating his birthday at home with his family.

[00:03:58]>> As soon as we reached the patio doors, Kelly was doing CPR.

[00:04:01]>> And you had some CPR training yourself.

[00:04:04]>> I have a bit 30 plus years ago.

[00:04:08]But I remembered it.

[00:04:11]I'm glad I didn't forget.

[00:04:13]>> You're running on adrenaline at the time, so you do probably you can do it longer than what you would in a training um situation.

[00:04:24]But to have someone there I I knew that I couldn't keep keep doing that that I needed to have a break. And by the time I think I was probably doing CPR for the first 5 minutes um before Colin but or by the time Colin got here. Um and Derek came back with the defib and I was ready for a break then.

[00:04:43]>> And it's it's very difficult cuz he he was making noises got as though he was actually going to start breathing.

[00:04:50]But it wasn't so you you just had to keep going. I thought, "No, just keep going. Keep going." Cuz you see them on the TV and things like that. Oh, they'll just start breathing. But that wasn't going to happen.

[00:05:01]>> By now, they'd been trying to save Paul's life for several minutes.

[00:05:05]>> I ran up to the the fire station to get a defibrillator, which is when I realized that there isn't actually one there.

[00:05:12]So I got the one further along the road. It's just took a toll like we all did. And it's it's hard work. It's tiring. And everybody has to take a shot. And it's not until you have to do it for real you realize just how tiring it is.

[00:05:27]Uh but yeah, it's it's it's a real experience.

[00:05:31]And one that I hope I don't ever have to have again.

[00:05:34]>> But we're teaching Derek to do CPR on his dad.

[00:05:37]Um you know, he's he's doing chest compressions looking at me am I doing this okay? And I was like, "No, you need to press harder, Derek. Press as hard as you can. You know, don't worry about breaking ribs. You need to press hard.

[00:05:48]>> Still, Paul had no pulse. Using the defibrillator was essential.

[00:05:52]>> Preparing shock. Move away from the patient.

[00:05:56]>> The defibrillator It talks to you. It tells you what to do.

[00:06:00]Um so, you have you have to sit back for a minute till it it checks for the checks for a pulse. Um and then it tells you when to press the button to shock. So, I had to shock him six times um while we were waiting on the ambulance coming. Six times it told us to shock him.

[00:06:16]>> [music] >> In rural Fife, it took 18 and 1/2 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. For Paul's loved ones, it felt far longer.

[00:06:25]>> [music] >> Paul survived because the people around him acted immediately. During cardiac arrest, every second counts.

[00:06:33]>> [music] >> Kelly, Daddy, and Colin became his chain of survival.

[00:06:37]The cardiac [music] arrest chain of survival is a sequence of actions that needs to happen for someone to have the best chance of staying alive. Recognize [music] if someone is in cardiac arrest and call 999. Start chest compressions [music] as soon as possible. Find a defibrillator and use shocks to help restart the heart and allow for emergency services [music] to take over once they arrive.

[00:07:01]>> Really, everything happens before you arrive in the emergency department which determines what's going to happen >> [music] >> in the longer term.

[00:07:10]>> Emergency medicine consultant Dr. Gareth Clegg says survival depends on what happens in the first few minutes after collapse. [music] He helped found Save a Life for Scotland, a national initiative teaching CPR [music] and defibrillator use across Scotland.

[00:07:26]>> So, I think everyone has a role to play in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest response. And really, what we want is for the whole population of Scotland to be confident to understand what cardiac arrest is and to be ready to act in the same way that you would if there was a fire and you could see a fire extinguisher.

[00:07:42]>> The initiative's aim is simple, save more lives by giving more people the confidence to perform CPR and use a defibrillator. Since they began in 2015, they've trained over a million Scots.

[00:07:55]Back when it all started, did you ever think that you would manage to reach that amount of people to teach them CPR?

[00:08:01]>> Well, I I think it's everybody should know how to do CPR. Any training or any familiarity is better than nothing.

[00:08:08]But obviously, the more detailed and more hands-on the training is, then the better you're likely to perform in the moment.

[00:08:15]>> And the emergency services, including call handlers, have a vital role to play.

[00:08:20]>> Overwhelmingly, what we need people to do is step up and have a go.

[00:08:24]Because the reality is, when someone's heart has stopped, you can't make things worse.

[00:08:29]Any CPR will be better than no CPR. And when you call for help, the call handler at the Scottish Ambulance Service will talk you through what to do.

[00:08:37]And actually, even if you've never seen CPR before, you'll be able to do something which will help the situation rather than hinder it.

[00:08:46]>> The median age of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is 65, but it can affect anyone at any age. People in Scotland's most deprived communities are twice as likely to suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. A person's chance of survival diminishes by 10% for every minute that passes [music] without immediate intervention.

[00:09:07]>> Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a brutally time-critical condition.

[00:09:12]So, it's really important that starts immediately, and a defibrillator is brought as quickly as possible, within a minute or two of the collapse.

[00:09:20]And so, the whole community really needs to be ready [music] to know what to do.

[00:09:25]>> So, one of these might be quite intimidating to someone who's not used one before. I certainly haven't. You know, talk me through how it works.

[00:09:33]>> All you need to do is open it up, switch it on, and follow the instructions.

[00:09:38]Public access defibrillators are designed to be used by people who never used them.

[00:09:43]Um you open up the box and switch them on, and they begin to talk to you and tell you what to do.

[00:09:48]And the instructions are also printed, usually um somewhere on the defibrillator. So, if you follow the instructions, they should be foolproof.

[00:09:55]They certainly won't give a shock if a shock isn't required. So, you can't do harm with a defibrillator.

[00:10:01]>> Analyzing.

[00:10:02]>> Gareth was part of the Edinburgh University team behind Pad Map, a tool designed to identify the best locations for public defibrillators.

[00:10:11]What kind of barriers are we still facing there when it comes to actually, you know, getting them in that in that moment of emergency?

[00:10:19]>> Yes. So, over the last few years, the number of defibrillators in Scotland has doubled.

[00:10:24]But the number of people who have defibrillators used on them has not gone up to the same degree.

[00:10:29]And that's because a lot of defibrillators are in the wrong place or they're not accessible when they're required. So, we advise people to put them outside of a building in an unlocked box so that they're available out of hours, and that there's no delay in trying to have to find codes or phone the ambulance service to determine what a code is in order to get this life-saving piece of equipment because as many people will know, uh in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, literally every second counts.

[00:11:00]>> Over the past decade, survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland have doubled.

[00:11:05]>> When we started this work, there were less than 180 people surviving their cardiac arrests every year.

[00:11:11]Now, there are over 360 people in Scotland surviving their cardiac arrests, and that means hundreds of people um over the years back to their loved ones who would otherwise have been dead.

[00:11:22]>> Paul Scott knows he beat the odds. He spent 3 days in an induced coma and ventilator. Miraculously, he made a full recovery.

[00:11:31]>> I just burst into tears on the phone when they said to me he's sitting up talking.

[00:11:35]You know, 3 days later I suppose deep down I I must have thought it was never going to happen.

[00:11:42]>> They definitely prepared you for the worst.

[00:11:44]>> Oh, they absolutely did. And they I mean they did say when we were in the family room, they did say them the chances of him surviving this are very very slim. You know, he's he's very poorly.

[00:11:54]Um if he does survive there's a high chance that there will be brain damage from from lack of oxygen.

[00:12:01]Um But we're starting to think in best case scenario was he would survive, but there would be some kind of brain damage. Um but there's not >> [laughter] >> Careful now.

[00:12:17]>> He's still the >> [laughter] >> He's still the grumpy old man he was before he went in.

[00:12:22]>> So we're all just glad that he he made it through.

[00:12:24]Um hasn't really changed a bit.

[00:12:27]>> [laughter] >> Paul will be forever grateful [music] to his chain of survival. Their quick actions saved his life.

[00:12:36]>> I owe my life to my wife, my son, and Colin, my neighbor.

[00:12:43]And the NHS.

[00:12:45]>> Why? Because we started CPR in the first 3 minutes, that that's why he's had such a good outcome.

[00:12:51]>> Paul Scott survived because his family and neighbor acted without hesitation.

[00:12:56]They made every second count.

[00:12:59]>> If it was your husband you would do everything you can't to save them.

[00:13:04]If you thought there was anything you could do to help you would do it.

[00:13:08]>> You you've got to give it a try.

[00:13:09]>> Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:13:11]>> And I'm I'm glad you did.

[00:13:13]>> Yeah.

[00:13:14]>> [laughter]