Campaign "Pupils learn to save lives" continues

In Germany alone, about 70,000 people suffer cardiovascular arrest every year. Pupils can now get an overview of resuscitation techniques and first aid at the campaign "Pupils Learn to Save Lives", which has now been continued after a break due to corona.

"Pupils teach to save lives" - under this motto, an emergency paramedic course of the Fire and Rescue Service Academy Bocholt (FRB) carried out a life-saving project at the Euregiogymnasium Bocholt this week.

Among other things, emergency paramedics are trained at the FRB, and the project week is part of the training. Based on the project Wiederbelebung macht Schule (Resuscitation in Schools) of the Ministry for Schools and Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Euregio Gymnasium and the Fire and Rescue Service Academy developed a training concept by trainees for pupils in grades seven to nine.

"In the practical phase of the project, more than 300 pupils of these grades were trained in resuscitation by the trainees of the FRB in a two-hour unit each," reports Jan Neukaeter, head of the rescue service school at the FRB. The students were given useful tips on first aid, but the focus was on the practical part.

About 70,000 cases a year

In Germany, about 70,000 people suffer cardiovascular arrest every year. Currently, only ten percent of those affected survive, partly because the probability of survival decreases with every minute that cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not initiated.

Other countries have been able to significantly increase the rate of lay resuscitation, among other things through structured resuscitation instruction in schools, and thus improve the probability of survival after a cardiovascular arrest.

"With this project, the Euregio High School in Bocholt and the Fire and Rescue Service Academy want to draw attention to the necessity of resuscitation as quickly as possible and motivate the students to intervene in an emergency," says Neukaeter.