Heart of West London partner Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) has launched new guidelines to help save lives across all community and professional sporting events.
Resuscitation on the Field of Play: a best practice guideline, aims to improve the response to a sudden cardiac arrest on the field of play and increase the chances of a full recovery.
RCUK says medical teams responding to an athlete suffering a cardiac arrest can help to achieve this through prompt recognition, high-quality CPR, early defibrillation and effective emergency planning.
The guidelines are designed for medical teams who need to respond to an athlete having a cardiac arrest during or shortly after sporting activity, across all community and professional sports - such as football, swimming and tennis.
Sudden cardiac arrest on the field of play is a rare but devastating event, with approximately one in 217,000 people per year suffering a sports-related sudden death.
Neil Greig, head of medical at Brentford FC, said: “Cardiac health is close to our hearts here at Brentford and further research in this area is something we continue to work towards through our Heart of West London partnership.
“We welcome RCUK’s best-practice guidelines which provides important information about dealing with sudden cardiac arrest on the field of play.
“The more knowledge and education we can spread, the better equipped we can all be to save lives.”
Michael Bradfield, director of clinical and service development at RCUK added: “Sudden cardiac arrest on the field of play can be difficult to recognise; some athletes may look as though they are breathing or have seizure-like activity with their eyes open.
“It’s important to recognise that these signs can be present, however a person may need immediate resuscitation. Any unexpected collapse where someone is unresponsive should be presumed to be a sudden cardiac arrest and treated accordingly.
“Medical teams can use our document to support excellent practice in the resuscitation of athletes at all levels of sport.”
Resuscitation on the Field of Play: a best practice guideline includes initial assessment and recognition of cardiac arrest, CPR, defibrillation, airway management and transportation of athletes while CPR and defibrillation is taking place.
Elements of the guidelines are easily applicable to people participating in any sporting activity and to all community-based cardiac arrests - with or without a field-of-play medical team available.