Group Tackles Cardiac Arrest In Nigeria

As Nigeria, and indeed, Africa battles with the high rate of cardiac arrests in the society, a group known as ‘Smile Train’ has organized a 4-day training in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital for medical doctors to tackle the menace.
Speaking with newsmen, the South-South Coordinator of the group and Consultant Surgeon, Dr Benjamin Kejeh, said the training was meant to teach doctors how to rescue people from cardiac arrest when it occurs.
“The essence of the training is to teach doctors how to rescue people from cardiac arrest and its attendant death. So, it’s a way of letting people know the primary steps to take during cardiac arrest. In Nigeria, our diets are changing to western culture, hence the frequent cases of cardiac arrests. The trend will continue until so many people know what to do when somebody is down with cardiac arrest,” Kejeh said.
The coordinator said it was expected that all those that are being trained now will train others in their hospitals and beyond.
He, however, said that the major challenge is the equipment to carry out the rescue operations, noting that the machinery is solely provided presently by government.
“It’s one thing to train people and quite another to provide them with necessary tools to work with. Now that the National Surgical Obstetrics, Anaesthesia and Nursing Plan (NSOAP) in conjunction with ‘Smile Train’ has sponsored the training, it’s now up to the government, corporate organizations and men of goodwill to provide the trainees with the required equipment to practicalize the knowledge acquired,” Kejeh said.
Also speaking, the Lead Trainer of Smile Train, Anastasia Ohene, said the training would look at the basic life support and will expand to advanced stage.
According to her, cardiac arrest is becoming more frequent in Africa, hence the need to train people on how to attend to victims of cardiac arrest.
She said that over 24 doctors cutting across the South-South zone are participating in the training.
“So, it is expected that everybody that is leaving here today would have acquired basic skills of how to attend to cardiac arrest victims.
In a chat with one of the participants, Dr Nkechi Okejie, she defined Basic Life Support as first aid treatment given to a victim before the proper medical attention.
She reiterated that cardiac arrest is now rampant among the people, even in churches, markets and everywhere, and attributed the current high rate of cardiac arrest to imbibing western culture.
This, she said, has made it crucial for majority of the people to know about the process of applying basic life support to save victims of cardiac arrests.
She said for her as a medical doctor with knowledge of first aid, she expects to acquire more experience after the training.