Surrey woman urges everyone to learn to save a life after reuniting with ambulance team
A Surrey woman is adding her voice to calls for more people learn how to save a life after being reunited with the ambulance team who rushed to her aid.
Alejandra (Ale) Avila, 50, and husband, Jorge, attended Walton Ambulance Station recently ahead of South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) revealing its highest-ever and national-leading cardiac arrest survival rate at the launch of its latest out-of-hospital cardiac arrest annual report.
As it looks to further improve survival figures, SECAmb is urging the public to sign up to a local life-saving course near them and for anyone with first aid training or more to sign up to GoodSAM – an app it and other ambulance services uses to alert individuals to nearby cardiac arrests.
SECAmb’s report was officially launched on Valentine’s Day and as part of February’s Heart Month.
Jorge was quick to act providing vital life-saving CPR alongside his sons, then aged 16 and 14, when Ale collapsed and stopped breathing at their home in West Molesey in August 2020.
Ale and Jorge were delighted to meet and thank Paramedic, Keith Moore and Ambulance Technician, Denise Downham and backed the Trust’s focus on increasing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) awareness and bystander CPR.
Thanks to her family’s quick thinking and the advanced life support she received from the SECAmb team that day, including three shocks from a defibrillator, Ale has gone on to make a full recovery.
Ale said: “I’m just so grateful for everything everyone did. It was amazing to meet Denise and Keith to thank them in person. We absolutely encourage everyone to take the time to learn how to save a life.”
Keith added: “What Jorge and his sons did that day made all the difference. They were vital in starting the chain of survival.”
The public has played a vital role in the increased survival to 30 days rate of 11.5 per cent in 2023/24. It is the highest rate recorded by an English ambulance service, a two per cent increase on the previous year, and represents 307 lives saved. It is the third consecutive year that the Trust’s survival figure has been above the national average.
Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, SECAmb attended 9,065 cardiac arrests. Resuscitation was able to be commenced or continued by SECAmb ambulance crews on 2,709 of these patients – an average of more than one cardiac arrest every hour and close to one resuscitation attempt every three hours.
Interim Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Consultant Paramedic for SECAmb, Dan Cody said: “We are really pleased to see an increase in our cardiac arrest survival rate. It can take a whole community to save a life and the public, our volunteers, my colleagues, and our expert hospital teams, are all vital links in the chain of survival.
“Seeing our patients, such as Ale, be reunited with the teams that helped save their lives is a very clear reminder that behind the figures of our report are stories of individuals back living with their families, returning to work and getting back to their everyday activities."