Soccer survival kit
Brighton and Hove Albion soccer club may not have set the world of football on fire over the past five years, but it could teach the 1982 World Cup organisers in Spain a thing or two off the field.
The club has sponsored an important experiment that is aimed at increasing the chances of paramedics resuscitating spectators who suffer heart attacks during soccer matches. In 1977 the club invested 拢1000 in resuscitation equipment including defibrillators 鈥� machines that stimulate the heart by applying an electric current to restore rhythmic beating. Health workers have used the hardware seven times since, saving the lives of four elderly fans.
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The sponsored workers from the department of cardiology at Brighton鈥檚 Royal Sussex County Hospital point out that football stadia contain thousands of excited people, many of them men with heart problems, for up to 3 hours at a time.
Major football grounds are likely to experience at least one death that is caused by heart disease during each season. The team from the hospital says the experiment showed that health workers who are armed with the right medical equipment can increase the chances of survival of people who collapse from heart ailments in big crowds. 鈥淓ven when the alert is raised access can be extremely difficult. This is not made easier by poor cooperation from crowds whose attention is elsewhere and who may be unaware of the grave nature of the emergency.鈥� The results have recently been published in the British Medical Journal
From New 杏吧原创, 24 June 1982