Hello, my name is Adam.

I‘m a Community First Responder, responding to life-threatening emergencies in the community on behalf of the East Midlands Ambulance Service. I work as part of the Amber CFR group and respond to emergencies within the Erewash and Amber Valley district.

What is a Community First Responder?

Community First Responders volunteer their own time to respond to life-threatening emergencies within their local community. They are highly trained by the ambulance service to attend emergencies on their behalf. Not only do Community First Responders volunteer their time, they also have to fundraise for their kit. Community First Responders carry a variety of kit, enabling them to attend a variety of medical emergencies. The most vital piece of a kit a responder carries is a defibrillator.

A little about me...

I work full-time for the East Midlands Ambulance Service as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher. I’m the person you will initially speak to when you ring 999 and ask for an ambulance. I see first hand through my “day job” the incredible work that Community First Responders do. As part of my job, we also provide instructions over the telephone to help the patient until the crew or Community First Responder arrives, e.g. giving CPR instructions to increase the chance of a patient survival.

But what does this mean?

Following a cardiac arrest (the heart has stopped beating) early CPR is crucial. By starting CPR early a persons chance of surving a cardiac arrest can double or even quadruple - thats without the use of a defibrillator. However, evidence has shown that 60% of cardiac arrests patients do not recieve bystander CPR, through whatever reason.

When a defibrillator is then used within the first couple of minutes after a cardiac arrest the persons chance of surviving increases by up to 70%. For every minute that passes without defibrilation a persons chance of surving reduces by 10%.

How do Community First Responders fit into all of this?

When an emergency call comes into the Emergency Operations Centre, the Community First Responder is dispatched to the emergency by the ambulance service. We respond to emergencies within our local community which means that we are often only a few minutes away and almost always the first person on scene. This means that we can defibrilate the patients and start CPR within minutes to increase the patients chance of survival before then being backed up the ambulance crew who provide further advanced life support.

We don’t only respond to cardiac arrests. We also respond to other life-threatening emergencies which have the potential to very quickly deteriorate, including: breathing problems, chest pains, unconscious casualties, some trauma and other medical emergencies. We are then able to get to the patient quickly to stabilise them before being backed up by the ambulance crew.

Community First Responders require a lot of equipment to enable us to help the patient - this comes at a cost. As I said, we are trained by the ambulance service but we are expected to provide our own equipment - this is where you come in. Easily, the most expensive piece of kit a responder carries is the defibrilator which costs into the £1000’s. As well as defibilator we also carry various bits of kit including: oxygen, suction units, airway devices (to aid breathing), trauma kits, basic observations (blood pressure, temperature, blood glucose monitoring), and medications given to those struggling to breathe.

How can you help?

I am fundraising to purchase a full responder kit to respond to life-threatening emergencies within the community. Any donation, big or small, will go towards a defibrillator and other vital equipment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this profile, and thank you in advance for your donation.

You can find more information about Community First Responders on the East Midlands Ambulance Service website at www.emas.nhs.uk. To find out more about the Amber CFR group, please visit www.acfrs.org.