00:00This month is National Heart Month, and no, I'm not talking about Valentine's Day.
00:06Organised by the British Heart Foundation, the campaign raises awareness of cardiovascular disease, putting a strong focus on CPR.
00:14But while out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain one of the UK's leading causes of death, women are 27%
00:21less likely to receive bystander CPR.
00:24This is in part due to fears around dignity and accusations of inappropriate touching.
00:30I went to Rochester High Street to see if residents were aware of this gender gap.
00:35I would say that's probably due to prejudice.
00:37I didn't know that, yeah. That's interesting, yes.
00:42I can see that happening, yeah.
00:44I hadn't really thought about it. It hadn't occurred to me that there'd be a gender gap.
00:47Sally Holmes tells us why she thinks it's vital that people overlook this stigma.
00:5227% less likely, and it's because people are worried about taking their clothes off.
00:57Because to use a defibrillator in public, you need to take all the clothing off the chest.
01:04And whilst I can understand why some people might be worried about it, I always say,
01:09well, personally, I'm happy to have it all hanging out if someone's saving my life.
01:12But also, just verbalise what you're doing.
01:16Just tell people, I've got to do this, or we can't save this person.
01:19It's really important. I think it's terrible that women are less likely to receive CPR
01:27simply because they're a woman.
01:29That cannot be right. We need to change that thinking.
01:32The majority of current training uses a dummy that looks like the male body.
01:37Female dummies are being manufactured, but there is a campaign for some changes to be made.
01:44We're campaigning for them to have more floppy breasts, because the reality is, you know,
01:49if you've got a dummy with nice pert breasts, actually, that doesn't reflect the reality.
01:56And people may not realise that to put the pad on under the armpit, the left armpit,
02:01you may actually have to handle the breast and lift it out of the way to put the pad in
02:06place.
02:06Because if the pad is over the breast, it won't work as well.
02:09Now, South East Coast Ambulances are big supporters of the Bra Off, Defib On campaign,
02:14organised by a charity of the same name,
02:16who are reminding people to always, always take off the bra when using the defibrillator on women.
02:22And to see how easy it was for myself, I asked Sally to teach me how to use a defibrillator.
02:27Learning how to use a defibrillator only took me five minutes,
02:31as the machine talks you through the process.
02:33But Sally wants people to remember, Bra Off, Defib On,
02:38to reduce the gender gap in the survival rates of CPR.
02:42Every minute without CPR reduces a person's chances of survival by 10%.
02:47And according to Sally, when a life is on the line, dignity can wait,
02:53because removing a bra can be the difference between life and death.
02:57Nayla Mahamid for KMTV in Jenningham.
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