A non-governmental organisation, City Club Abuja, has trained students of Government Science Technical College, Garki, Abuja, in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Basic Life Support (BLS) to improve their ability to respond to medical emergencies.

The practical training, organised in collaboration with the school, focused on basic emergency-response skills that can be used when a person collapses or becomes unconscious before professional medical help arrives.

Speaking during the programme, the Head of Cardiology, National Hospital Abuja, Dr Oladipupo Fasan, said basic life-support knowledge was important because many cardiac arrests occurred outside hospitals.

He said victims of cardiac arrest often required immediate intervention before reaching a healthcare facility, stressing the need for members of the public to know how to respond in such situations.

Fasan noted that Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) were not yet widely available in public places in Nigeria, despite their potential role in some cardiac-arrest emergencies.

He also expressed concern over the country’s cardiovascular disease burden, noting that cardiovascular diseases were major causes of cardiac arrest and sudden collapse.

According to him, hypertension was a major risk factor for cardiovascular complications, including stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney failure.

Fasan said starting the training with students could have a wider impact, as beneficiaries could pass the skills on to people in their homes, schools and communities.

The President of the club, Oluwasanmi Ajayi, said the organisation planned to extend the training to other schools and make it a regular part of its community service activities.

He said the club, which has been involved in various community interventions since its establishment in 2019, introduced CPR and basic life-support training because of the potential impact of the skills on the wider community.

“We decided to impart knowledge to these students and teach them CPR and all this kind of thing so that it can be useful for them in future,” he said.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the club, Deji Adetuberu, said the programme was prompted by the increasing occurrence of situations where people suddenly collapsed, but those around them lacked the skills to provide immediate assistance.

He said training students could extend the reach of the programme, as they could pass the knowledge to their parents, siblings, relatives and friends.