All school students should learn resuscitation skills, campaigners claimed today.
A survey of British teenagers found most would like to be able to help in an emergency – but some 60 per cent were powerless to do so.
The British Heart Foundation said it was pressing the British government to add emergency life support skills to the schools national curriculum.
It said parents and teachers also backed the move.
Some 15,000 heart attacks in Britain every year take place with members of the public standing by. A victim’s chances of surviving, even after treatment in hospital, are less than ten per cent, according to the BHF.
Maura Gillespie, of the Foundation, said: “Teaching young people how to save a life is as important as learning to read and write. They are skills which equip them for real situations they might face in their lives.
"This Government wants the Big Society to empower people to take action in their communities and help others.
"Making these skills part of the National Curriculum in England would be a simple way of turning that vision into a reality.”
Dr Andrew Lockey, of the Resuscitation Council UK, said: "Feeling helpless when a person goes into cardiac arrest is an agonising situation.
“A ten minute delay between suffering a cardiac arrest and using a defibrillator could be the difference between life and death. Performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation offers a lifeline when every second counts.”
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