Health
Abuja Club trains Students On Emergency Response, Basic Life Support
By Folasade Akpan
Dr Oladipupo Fasan, the Head of Cardiology, National Hospital, Abuja (NHA), says teaching young people Basic Life Support (BLS) skills can help to reduce preventable deaths from sudden cardiac emergencies.
Fasan stated this on Friday in Abuja during a training programme on emergency resuscitation and BLS organised by The City Club Abuja (TCCA) for students of Government Science Technical College, Garki, Abuja.
He said the initiative was designed to equip students with survival skills to assist unconscious persons before medical professionals arrived or victims reached hospitals.
He added that “as we all know, we are here today to educate young ones about life support; what we call basic life support.”
He explained that the programme was prompted by increasing cases of cardiovascular disease and sudden deaths, popularly described as “fall and die.
“We thought, how better can we educate the society? We agreed that if we start with the young ones and educate them, they will grow and become educated adults.”
Fasan added that students could pass the knowledge to their colleagues, parents and siblings, thereby extending the programme’s reach beyond the immediate beneficiaries.
He said the training would be replicated in other schools, noting that cardiovascular diseases remained among the leading causes of cardiac arrest and sudden collapse.
The cardiologist said statistics on cardiac arrest in Nigeria were underreported, particularly because many incidents occurred outside hospitals.
“Most cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital and the way things are in Nigeria now, we are not there yet,” he said.
Fasan also noted that Nigeria was yet to achieve widespread availability of
Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public places.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of Ventricular Fibrillation (VF) and pulseless ventricular tachycardia and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electricity which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm.
Fasan said recent studies indicated that almost 40 per cent of Nigerians were hypertensive, a condition associated with several cardiovascular complications.
Earlier, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of TCCA, Mr Deji Adetuberu, said the training was intended to address the lack of basic emergency response skills among the public.
Adetuberu said the knowledge acquired by one student could reach family members, friends and other members of the community.
“One child you are educating here will transmit that value chain to like nine other people at the minimum,” he said.
He explained that the club’s philanthropic activities included supporting schools with books, assisting widows and undertaking other community projects.
He said the club was also considering extending the training to other groups, including journalists, to broaden public awareness of emergency response.
The President of TCCA, Mr Oluwasanmi Ajayi, said the organisation chose to impart knowledge to students rather than focus solely on conventional philanthropic activities.
He said the club, established in 2019, conducted its corporate social responsibility activities every three months and planned to make the training a regular initiative.
“We decided to teach them this CPR and all these kinds of things so that they can be useful for them in future,” Ajayi said.
Mr Satsohot Anthony, the Senior Boarding House Master of the school, said the training would improve the school’s response to emergencies, particularly in hostels.
Anthony mentioned falls from bunk beds, bullying and respiratory illnesses, including asthma, as situations where the knowledge could prove useful.
He said the school would demonstrate the skills during assemblies and other gatherings, adding that parents could also be reached through the Parent-Teacher Association.
Miss Chimamanda Igwe, a student, said the training had taught her how to revive a collapsed person.
“I want to actually be a cardiologist, so this little knowledge I have gotten from this place will actually be very helpful,” she said.
Elijah Awelewa, another student, said the training would reduce panic and improve students’ ability to respond to emergencies.
He advocated the introduction of BLS training in all schools, saying it would enable students to act promptly when emergencies occurred.
NAN reports that the programme was attended by 55 students and 12 members of staff.(NAN)
Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu