Lifesaving Equipment for Felixstowe CFRs

New Lifesaving Equipment for Felixstowe Community First Responders

During 2021 the Felixstowe Community First Responders (CFRs) have embarked on a variety of fundraising activities to replace ageing lifesaving equipment, purchasing new equipment in line with improvements to their skillset, running costs and keep up with the rapidly increasing size of the team of volunteers. This is in addition to their primary goal of responding to local emergency medical calls to stabilise, treat and reassure patients until the arrival of an ambulance crew.

As part of the fund-raising activities, the Felixstowe Community First Responders team contacted the Rotary Club of Felixstowe for assistance and were invited to give a presentation to the Rotary Club to talk about their vital role in the local community and the positive impact that it has on patient care in an emergency.

As a result of the enlightening presentation, the Rotary Club of Felixstowe were delighted to have the chance to fully fund the purchase of a fourth complete kit for a First Responder at a cost of £2,184.11. Club President Bryan Boreham, shown holding one end of the banner in the picture said: “We were so taken by the importance to all of our local community of the very valuable role carried out by the Felixstowe Community First Responders team, who are all volunteers, and further impressed by the fact that they proactively fundraise to provide the equipment to carry out this vital role”.

Commenting on the grant, Daniel Jacobs, Community First Responder and Group Coordinator for Felixstowe, said: “We are thrilled to have been granted the funds towards a fourth kit. With our group growing from 7 in early 2020 to around 20 later this year, I feel this is a natural progression to allow us to enhance our cover in Felixstowe and the surrounding areas. This is something that will benefit members of the community in their time of need and we are grateful to the Rotary Club for providing us with the money that we need to purchase vital lifesaving equipment.”

The team of volunteers are trained by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust to respond to a variety of potentially life-threatening conditions, including chest pain, breathing problems and diabetic emergencies and even as far as cardiac arrests where the patient is unconscious and not breathing.

Each kit carries a variety of monitoring equipment that allows the CFRs to monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, blood pressure and temperature; allowing them to build what is referred to as ‘NEWS2 score’ that indicates how unwell the patient is.

In addition, they carry a variety of lifesaving equipment for airway management, oxygen therapy and defibrillation which vastly improves the chances of a patient’s survival if carried out quickly alongside Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).