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YORKSHIRE EMERGENCY SERVICES BOULDERING COMPETITION (Y.E.S COMP)

Some of you may have already seen our information about the friendly bouldering competition the YAS (Yorkshire Ambulance Services) are organising at The Climbing Works. This is open to all emergency services and NHS staff in Yorkshire but in case you missed it here are a few details for you !

The event is all about having fun and enjoying some friendly competition, however behind this there is a more serious reason which is to raise money for a community Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

In February this year one of our team wound up in hospital after collasping in the centre. There was nothing out of the ordinary that day, it was a typical busy Sunday afternoon and while trying really hard to complete one of Sam's tricky roof problems, they collasped and stopped breathing. Luckily one of our Manager's friends is a junior doctor and he rushed to the rescue and started CPR.

In hospital the cardiac team diagnosed a rare but serious heart syndrome that can cause Arrhythmias, which are irregular rhythms that can causes sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

Here are some scary figures about SCA:

Associated syndromes kill 250 people in Britain each day

They can happen to anyone regardless of age or fitness as it’s caused by interference of electro signals from the brain to the heart, not from heart disease.

If someone suffers SCA due to an arrhythmia they only have a 5% chance of surviving the event out of hospital as shock is the only method to reset the hearts rhythm.

Due to some amazing technology, our little lady has been fitted with an Internal Defibrillator monitoring her heart rythm. In the event of another attack this will step in where our on hand George Clooney did that Sunday afternoon to restore regular heart rythm. Suffers of SCA can have their chances of survival dramatically increased if there is an AED on hand as survival is decreasing by 10% every minute they are waiting for paramedics.

Climbing Works member and local paramedic Jim Walmsley supplied some information about community AED, this is a defibrillator device that is accessible for anyone in the community, the device is automated giving instructions to anyone using it (so no training necessary), it is also very sophisticated and will monitor the patient’s statistics only supplying a shock if required.

With climbing walls, gymnastics clubs, martial arts and many businesses around the Little London Road area a community AED would be a really beneficial piece of first aid and could potentially be the difference between a near miss and a serious situation.

The cost of the AED and security box will coast around £1,200. To help raise a bit of money towards this The Climbing Works will be putting all entrance fees from the competition towards buying an AED, we will also have a collection bucket on the night for spectators to donate.

If you are part of an emergency service and would like to submit a team please email michelle@climbingworks.com or call 0114 250 990