Kids Save Lives - ERC position statement on school children education in CPR.: "Hands that help - Training children is training for life".

Fig. 1. The “KIDS SAVE LIVES” logo has been developed by the Italian Resuscitation Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with unsuccessul cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the third leading cause f death in industrialised nations.1 After OHCA, the overall survival ates are 2–10%.2–4 In Europe and in the US together, 700,000 peole die of OHCA every year. The same applies to other industrialised egions of the world. Many of these lives could be saved if more ay people provided immediate CPR.2 Emergency medical services EMS) response times can be several (6–12) minutes or even longer. nfortunately, following cardiac arrest, the brain starts to die after nly 3–5 min without blood flow.5 Up to 70% of OHCA are witnessed by family members, friends nd other bystanders.2,5 Thus, the potentially lethal gap in time efore EMS personnel reach the patient can be successfully bridged y laypeople. During the first minutes after OHCA in adults there is till oxygen in the blood and lungs, and immediate bystander chest ompressions can save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.6 ffective CPR is quite easy – laypeople are very unlikely to cause arm by attempting CPR. Bystander CPR increases the patient’s hances of survival twoto four-fold.2 However, bystander CPR ates are 60–80% in only a very few countries; in most countries he rate is far below 20%.7 Mandatory nationwide training of school children has the highst impact for improving the bystander CPR rate.8–13 This appears o be the most successful way to reach the entire population. The ighest bystander CPR rates are in some Scandinavian countries here education of school children in CPR has been mandatory for ecades,12 and this concept is starting to spread. In support, the World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed he “Kids Save Lives” Statement in 2015, a joint statement from he European Resuscitation Council (ERC), the European Patient afety Foundation (EPSF), the International Liaison Committee on esuscitation (ILCOR) and the World Federation of Societies of nesthesiologists (WFSA).6,10,11 This statement recommends two ours of CPR training annually from the age of 12 years in all schools orldwide. At this age, children are more responsive to instructions nd they learn more easily to help others.9 Starting at a young age lso means that CPR is like swimming or riding a bike: children will ot forget how to save a life.14 Healthcare professionals, teachers rained to teach CPR and others can successfully teach school chilren, and all can serve as multipliers.15 CPR knowledge and skills an be spread further by asking children to teach their family and riends.