Buckie First community Responder team offering chance to learn life-saving skills
A team of local life-saving volunteers are offering the opportunity to learn some life and death skills at a community-based session.
Buckie Wildcat Community First Responders are keen to hear from people from all walks of life who would be interested in attending a free session focusing on how to perform CPR and also how to use one of the many public access defibrillators in the area.
The session would be held be held in the Victoria Hotel, Portknockie at a time to be arranged should there be interest from the public in attending.
Depending on the size of group, the session would last between an hour and a half and two hours.
Lorna Cameron, from the Community First Responder team, said: “We offer the community the opportunity to attend awareness sessions on how to perform CPR on adults, kids and babies and how to use portable defibrillator units; it’s something we’ve been doing for a while.
“We’ve done sessions with all age groups, ranging from kids right through to older people.
“Ultimately we want as many people out there to be confident with CPR and using the defibrillators as possible.
“It can be scary, but the machine itself talks you through what to do and if you’re using a defibrillator you’d be supported throughout by someone at ambulance control. The session aren’t just about learning the techniques, it’s knowing that there’s that support there, whether is the ambulance service or us.
“How to do CPR is something everyone should be aware of.
“At the sessions we also run through things like the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.”
Anyone interested in coming along to the session in Portknockie should get in touch with the team via the Buckie Wildcat Community First Responders’ Facebook page or drop them an email at Buckiewildcats@outlook.com
Originally named the Buckie Wildcat Cardiac Responders, the team have expanded their role since becoming Community First Responders last year. Prior to this step up, the team, operating under the Scottish Ambulance Service, focused on help keeping people suffering from cardiac arrests alive until paramedics arrive.
Ms Cameron continued: “We all passed our Community First Responder training with the Scottish Ambulance Service over the course of two weekends at the end of last August.
“We’ve now got a team of eight and we fundraised to buy a total of four medical kitbags, each containing a defibrillator and other equipment
“Now we can do a lot more for people. While we still have the cardiac arrest element to what we do, now we’ve been trained to recognise the signs of stroke and the symptoms of the likes of COPD and asthma.”
She added that generally speaking they had teams of two on call every day.
Volunteers on call receive an alert via the GoodSAM app asking them to respond to an emergency along with some basic details, such as male/female, age and if they are still breathing
The team covers an area spanning 200 square miles, running roughly from Mosstodloch in the west to Sandend in the east and down to Keith in the south.
For more information and news about the Buckie Wildcat Community First Responders, visit the group Facebook page.