Heartguard

The idea of emergency care of the injured or dying patient originated many thousands of years ago. The earliest reference to mouth-to-mouth ventilation is the Bible, when the prophet Elisha revived an apparently dead child. But it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that any effective methods of artificial resuscitation, which required little skill and could be taught to un-trained lay persons, came into being.

These were the Silvester, Schafer and Holger Nielson methods. These methods employed pulling the victim’s arms above their head to expand the thoracic cage and allow air to enter the lungs. The amount of air entering the lungs varied from method to method but without exception was inadequate to sustain life. It was not until the early 1960's that mouth-to-mouth and cardiac compressions became accepted as the only effective method of emergency resuscitation or to be more correct, emergency life support. Recent research has highlighted the importance of early effective, sustained chest compressions.

In parallel with the successful introduction of community Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training in Seattle and other parts of the USA, Professor Douglas Chamberlain (then Doctor), Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, launched the Brighton community resuscitation programme, based on a 2-hour syllabus. Called the "Heart & Lung Resuscitation Scheme", it was set up in 1978 as a pilot programme under the auspices of the British Heart Foundation. It was the first such scheme in Europe.

In 1982 it was re-launched as 'Heartguard'. Heartguard is a community resuscitation training programme and is part of the Sussex Heart Charity (formally known as the Brighton Heart Support Trust). Since 1978 we have trained in excess of 110,000 people, these numbers include those who have undertaken the Public Access Defibrillator, Community First Response Teams, and Extended Emergency Life Support training.