A campaign to train communities to help victims of a sudden heart attack was announced by the Irish Heart Foundation yesterday.
Some 6,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrests every year, with 70 per cent of these happening outside a hospital setting.
The Heartsafe Community Programme encourages communities such as workplaces, schools and healthcare facilities to receive training in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and to learn how to use an automatic external defibrillator to help victims.
This device guides the user through the steps of defibrillation with voice prompts.
It recognises heart rhythms and advises the user when to shock, or not shock, the patient.
The device costs about €2,000, but the foundation is hopeful that community groups will get sponsorship from local businesses to provide them.
Launching the programme, the President, Mary McAleese, said it was "unbelievably scary" that the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrests outside a hospital setting was just 1 per cent.
