CPR training dummies are getting boobs to help save women’s lives when they suffer a cardiac arrest.
A new product, the Womanikin, is putting breasts on CPR models to help first-aiders feel more comfortable touching women’s chests.
Studies have shown that men – because of their flat chests – are more likely to receive life-saving intervention than women.
Researchers say men’s reluctance to touch a woman’s chest might be the reason.
Women suffering cardiac arrest in public are 27 per cent less likely than men to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
And a recent study, led by cardiologist Dr Hanno Tan at the University of Amsterdam, found that just 68 per cent of women are likely to receive bystander CPR compared to 73 per cent of men.
Sara Askey, British Heart Foundation’s head of survival, said that “every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by up to 10 per cent, which is why knowing how to perform CPR is essential and doing something is always better than doing nothing.”
New York ad agency JOAN Creative, along with organisation United State of Women (Usowomen), created a universal attachment to turn any single-gendered CPR dummy into a “women”, to allow first aid trainees to practise on a female chest.
MALE TORSOS 'OUTDATED'
On Instagram, Usowomen criticised the traditional practise upon male torsos as “outdated and could have [fatal] consequences…
“It’s time to update the education process, get people used to performing CPR on people with breasts, and drive equality in cardiac intervention.”
The universal attachment can “easily be slipped over the common flat-chested” CPR dummy, as part of the campaign to “increase access to CPR for all women, girls and people with breasts,” it said.
The Womanikin website explains the project was launched to “raise awareness of the millions of women who die from heart disease… [and] save women’s lives.”
Its ambition is to have “every CPR training school” across America using a Womanikin attachment “and thousands of people instructed on how to assist a woman who has gone into cardiac arrest by the end of 2020”.
SAVE A LIFE
The website also provides instructions on how to give CPR to females, saying that performing chest compressions “will mean you are touching her left breast. Don’t worry, you might save her life.”
JOAN co-founder Jaime Robinson told CNN: “The vast majority of us learn on a flat-chested torso.
“This universal attachment will change that."
A cardiac arrest isn't the same as a heart attack – there are vital differences.
It happens when your heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body, and will cause a person to drop down unconscious.
Their breathing will be irregular and might stop and you won't be able to rouse them.
Time is of the essence, and you must act fast to keep a loved one, or stranger alive.
Dial 999, or get someone nearby to do it.
And, crucially, it's important to start CPR almost immediately, experts say.
HOW TO PERFORM CPR ON PEOPLE WITH BREASTS:
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