On Friday, 16^th October, TraumaSim and Safe Response hosted a CPR information session in support of Restart a Heart Day.

Founded in 2017, Restart a Heart was established to raise awareness and educate the community about CPR and AEDs in the community. This year the theme and focus was on Call Push Shock.

Sadly, 30,000 Australians suffer from cardiac arrest each year and on average, only 1 in 10 survive. With more civilians trained in basic first aid, CPR and use of an AED, we can reduce these tragic statistics. After 10 minutes without intervention the damage caused by cardiac arrest is nearly irreversible.

Whilst COVID-19 remains a prevalent concern in today’s society, there is no need to let it stop you from responding to someone in need. The advice received is that CPR is encouraged on immediate family members and for those that are uncertain, breaths can be withheld as long as compressions are maintained.

Other scary statistics show that only 39% of women receive CPR compared to only 45% of men. Further research shows that bystanders lack confidence to respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and the poor response on women may be due to a misunderstanding that women can suffer from cardiac arrest, that CPR could hurt or injure someone or that modesty is more important in this situation.

Almost all CPR manikins are plastic and flat-chested with the same neutral face and therefore most students do not learn how to perform CPR on a torso with breasts and may be less prepared to respond to a casualty effectively. It is appropriate to give a woman CPR in public and whilst it can be uncomfortable for all to expose bare breasts in a public space, it is important to push through this taboo and take the necessary action to save a life – they will thank you later !

At TraumaSim, we’re passionate about realism in training as we know it better mentally prepares students by improving skills and retention. This is why we invented The Manniskin, a joint innovation with SimpFX that is a realistic skin applied to the standard Little Anne manikins. It really was time for Little Anne to grow up !

We had the opportunity to introduce this new product to our local neighbours who joined us for Restart a Heart Day 2020 held at the TraumaSim premises in Perth, Western Australia.

Positive feedback was received from all attendees who were surprised by the statistics and, whilst some acknowledge that the breasts could be distracting initially, they were confident The Manniskin would assist break through the awkwardness, improve training and left confident that they could undertake CPR on a bystander, and potentially save the life a colleague, friend or family member.

Please see photos from the day below.