Critical Community First Responders prove their worth
In the space of a year or so the local community responder group has been extremely active and has already become an integral part of the fantastic volunteer groups that this area is so blessed to have.
As with the more established community groups in the town like the Lions club, St Vincent De Paul, River Rescue and the Meals Assistance group, the community first responder group is fully voluntary and all involved do so out of a sense of community and a desire to see the public around our area looked after.
Adam Hunt, the founder of the group is astonished at how the group has taken off, stating that the support from the public has been a major factor in their success. “We could not and would not be where we are today if it was not for the generous nature and community spirit of the people of Carrick and the surrounding areas”.
Since the group’s first call out on 26th May, 2024 it has gone from strength to strength proving itself to be a vital service. The complete lack of investment by successive governments in health, in particular, in the electoral area saw emergency response times become a very dangerous factor but thanks to the group and their involvement with the national ambulance service those in need of critical care receive it much faster and for those unlucky enough to be going into cardiac arrest or suffering from stroke symptoms time is truly of the essence.
In the first three months of this year alone the group has responded to an amazing 61 call outs. That averages out at one call out every 36 hours, a remarkable number given this is a group of volunteers. Of the total call outs the break down was 30 for chest pains, 18 for possible strokes, eight with heart problems, three patients going into cardiac/respiratory arrest, one with breathing problems, and one fainting.
If one looks at just the possible stroke figures alone the implications for patients who do not receive treatment in time are disastrous to put it mildly. Every minute truly counts and the faster a first responder arrives on the scene the better the outcome for the patient.
About 85% of strokes are caused when the blood supply is shut off because of a clot blocking a blood vessel, the medical terminology for this type of stroke is an Ischaemic stroke. The other 15% are Haemorrhagic strokes, where a blood vessel that supplies the brain bursts. In both instances time is of the essence and thankfully because of this fine group of volunteers first response times in our area have dropped significantly, with many of the call outs being responded to within eight minutes.