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Heart Attacks and Strokes

  • Elouise W
  • Jul 19, 2017
  • 2 min read

The whole of Year 8 have been learning first aid life skills for their SMSC day, which covers a range of topics, including:

  • Strokes and heart attacks

  • CPR

  • Bleeding and breaks

  • Recovery Position

  • Choking and asthma

  • Defibrillator training

In the strokes and heart attacks sessions, students in Year 8 were learning the causes and what they could do to help a person suffering from a heart attack or stroke. They are incredibly similar, as students quickly learned. They both occur when the blood flow stops and the body part can’t get enough oxygen. In a stroke, the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen; in a heart attack, the heart doesn’t receive enough oxygen (often through blood clots).

Students learned what to do if they found someone having a stroke or heart attack and potentially how to prevent a heart attack or stroke through a person’s lifestyle. For example, another session during the day was defibrillator training. Students learned that a defibrillator can be used to quickly help someone having a heart attack with a simple call to paramedics. They also found out that defibrillators are positioned all around towns and cities as a first port of call, and they also learned how to use them in another session. Year 8 also learned the causes of strokes and found that an unhealthy lifestyle can contribute to the ferocity of the medical condition, which can be potentially life changing.

Each person made a leaflet that can be used to inform people the causes and how to prevent and help people having a stroke or heart attack from the information that they learned during the 50 minutes.

The British Heart Foundation have found that heart attacks kill up to 200 people of working age every single week, and if students have the knowledge at this age, they can actually help to bring down this number in the near future. Sam says, “The best thing to do in this situation is to reassure the person that help is on the way. If you are ever in a situation where you find someone mid-heart attack or stroke, you can take control. It isn’t something you would normally learn in school, but it is incredibly important to learn for social situations!”

Over 85% of people that have suffered from a stroke have suffered from an Ischaemic stroke caused from a blood clot (NHS Choices) and they need the person with them to stay calm and call for help. Lydia says, “If someone has a stroke, I have learned that it is important to stay calm.”

It appears that Year 8 will use these skills for years to come - one of the most important life skills that they could ever learn, how to save someone’s life.


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