Ambulance Victoria’s Kids Save Lives program has been expanded, offering life-saving CPR skills to even more students.
The life-saving, Australian-first program aims to improve cardiac arrest survival rates by showing students how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
Last year, Ambulance Victoria paramedics responded to 7545 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Every day, about 20 Victorians suffer a cardiac arrest, but only one in 10 survives.
Ambulance Victoria regional operations executive director Danielle North said it was important that both adults and young people knew CPR and how to use an AED.
“Our Kids Save Lives program contains essential learning and life-saving skills,” Ms North said.
“Students will not only be able to share their knowledge with friends and family, but also with their wider community.”
“The students have really engaged with the learning,” she said.
Through Kids Save Lives, students are taught to recognise when someone is in cardiac arrest and follow three simple steps:
Call – Call Triple Zero
Push – Perform CPR
Shock – Use an AED
The program is run in partnership with the Heart Foundation, Monash University, Australian Resuscitation Council, Department of Education and Training, and Heart of the Nation.
The original Yellow Wiggle, Greg Page, established Heart of the Nation after surviving a cardiac arrest in January 2020.
The Heart Foundation’s Victorian general manager, Chris Enright, said only half of Australian adults were trained in CPR.
She said those with training were more willing to help others in emergency situations.
“Educating children is a successful way to reach the entire population, as children can be encouraged to teach others,” she said.
“We know that CPR training programs in schools that have run overseas in Sweden, France, Denmark, Norway, and the UK have equipped participants with life-saving knowledge.
“These countries now have some of the highest bystander CPR and survival rates.”
More than 5300 students from 35 schools have already enrolled in the expansion pilot program, and more secondary schools are urged to get involved.
“You don’t have to be a paramedic to save a life – you just need to be able to perform CPR and know how to use an AED,” Ms Enright said.
Email community.engagement@ambulance.vic.gov.au for more information about the free Kids Save Lives program.
