UK charity British Heart Foundation (BHF) is kicking off the New Year with a vigorous campaign to actively promote Hands-only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Their message, which is backed by Resuscitation Council UK, to anyone who does not have CPR training, is forget about kiss of life and focus on giving “hard and fast” compressions in the centre of the chest. The aim is to give bystanders confidence to act when they encounter a person in cardiac arrest.

The campaign, is spear-headed by a new TV advert featuring “Hollywood hard man” and former Chelsea footballer Vinnie Jones.

In the ad, Jones demonstrates what to do for someone in cardiac arrest: call for an ambulance then perform Hands-only CPR. The key message of the ad is:

“Call 999. Then press Hard and Fast to the beat of Stayin’ Alive.”

To help people get the pace right, BHF suggest they hum the Bee Gees classic song “Stayin’ Alive” while they do the compressions.

The campaign follows a UK-wide poll that revealed when asked, nearly half of people said they would be put off helping because of lack of knowledge about CPR, and one in five said they were worried about the thought of giving the kiss of life or catching an infection or disease.

The charity has decided that setting aside the kiss of life and focusing on “hands-only CPR” should give lots of people the confidence and necessary know-how they need to help save a life.

BHF’s Senior Cardiac Nurse Ellen Mason told the press:

“The kiss of life can often be daunting for untrained bystanders who want to help when someone has collapsed with a cardiac arrest.”

The poll also showed that 4 in 10 people fear being sued for doing something wrong, even though there has never been a successful case of that kind in the UK.

But the fact remains that without some form of CPR, someone in cardiac arrest has very little chance of surviving.

Mason said:

“Hands-only CPR should give lots of people the confidence and know-how to help save someone in cardiac arrest, the ultimate medical emergency. It’s been shown that hard, fast and uninterrupted chest compressions are better than stopping compressions for ineffective rescue breaths.”

The TV ad, which will be shown throughout January, shows an uncharacteristically “compassionate” Vinnie Jones in a deserted warehouse doing Hands-only CPR in time to “Stayin’ Alive”, while two of his henchmen dance around.

Jones said:

“There really shouldn’t be any messing about when it comes to CPR. If you’re worried about the kiss of life just forget it and push hard and fast in the centre of the chest to Stayin’ Alive.”

“If you’re untrained or unconfident about the kiss of life give Hands-only CPR a go instead – it could help save someone’s life,” he urged.

In her blog published on Tuesday, BHF’s Head of Policy and Advocacy, Maura Gillespie, writes about Hands-only CPR:

“The fact that you have enough oxygen in your blood to keep you alive as long as someone keeps it pumping around your body by pushing your chest until an ambulance arrives was news to me,” she writes.

“Having done CPR training some time ago I, like many, could not really remember how many pushes or breaths you needed to do during CPR. Hands-only CPR immediately seemed like a great technique, one I would be much happier doing on a stranger,” she added.

The TV ad teaches people “hard and fast” Hands-only CPR in 40 seconds. Gillespie likens it to other memorable ads that have probably helped save countless lives, such as the “clunk-click, every trip” seat belt ad, and the Green Cross Code ads that taught children how to cross the road safely.

“I wanted this one to be equally successful,” she writes.

The BHF say they will continue to teach chest compressions with “rescue breaths” (kiss of life) on their “gold standard” resuscitation training, such as their Heartstart courses.

Click here for more information about the advert and to see a short training video.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD