A man performs CPR on a woman in cardiac distress.
A third of adults in Britain are afraid to perform life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation on women because they feel nervous touching their breasts, a first aid charity has found.
A third of men said they didn’t want to be accused of ‘inappropriate touching’, while almost half (46%) said they were afraid of taking off a woman’s bra to properly insert a defibrillator .
A smaller but still significant proportion of women felt nervous about touching other women’s breasts inappropriately, according to a St John Ambulance survey of 1,000 British adults.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said they were less likely to perform CPR on a woman in public than on a man.
Bystanders are known to be less likely to perform CPR or use defibrillators on women if they experience a cardiac emergency in public.
Between 2005 and 2015, in the US and Canada, only 61% of women who went into cardiac arrest in public received CPR, compared to 68% of men. a study of the 39,000 out-of-hospital cardiac emergencies diagnosed last year.
Hesitation costs lives, with these interventions more than doubling the chance of surviving cardiac arrest, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Nervousness around inappropriate touching isn’t the only factor at play; Heart disease is generally poorly recognized in women.
But the new research confirms the fears often expressed by resuscitation trainees, said James McNulty, a paramedic and clinical unit chief at St. John Ambulance.
“We have encountered this barrier regularly during our training,” he told me. “But the latest research from St. John has made it clear that this is a problem.”
Every additional moment of hesitation can affect the outcome of a cardiac emergency. But the majority of survey respondents (64%) said they would feel more comfortable resuscitating women if they had the right support and training.
Using a defibrillator within the first three minutes of cardiac arrest can improve survival by 70%, according to research from the Resuscitation Council UK and BHF.
“An ambulance or trained healthcare provider may not arrive within that time frame,” so it is “critical” that citizens know how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator.
Bystanders can have a “huge” impact, McNulty said. “It is so often the difference between life and death.”
St John Ambulance, which offers free first aid training, hosts free resources including short videos about performing CPR and using defibrillators on people with breasts.
The charity has also launched a campaign – featuring specially designed ‘resuscitation bras’ – to reassure members of the public that they should provide help as a bystander, regardless of a person’s gender.
British celebrities and influencers wear the ‘CPR Bra’ from the charity St John Ambulance. In the photo of … [+]
Chelsea Football Club Women’s Captain Millie Bright, who is involved in the campaign, said it was “terrifying” to see someone go into suspected cardiac arrest during a football match.
“To hear that as a woman I am more at risk because people do not feel comfortable offering help because of my gender is shocking,” she added in a statement.
“It is so important that we all take the time to learn how to save a life because we never know when we will need help from strangers.”