Picture this situation: a member of the public collapses in front of you, they are not breathing and have no pulse. Remembering your First Aid training, you recognise this as a cardiac arrest, begin Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and call 999 who refer you to the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to your location.

After sending another bystander to collect the AED, you attach the electrodes to the casualty’s chest and wait for the device to analyse. The AED recommends a shock, and ultimately delivers three shocks before the casualty regains a heartbeat and is taken to hospital.

What seems like a heroic act to almost everyone may have actually been against the wishes of the person who suffered the cardiac arrest. So, can they actually take legal action against you for saving their life if they didn’t want you to?

While the final of Euro 2024 ended in disappointment for England fans, the tournament was a major win for education around cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).

Training in CPR was given in partnership with the European Resuscitation Council at fan zones across Germany. The campaign’s aim was to educate football fans, players and coaches on SCA and increase rates of bystander CPR.

When someone suffers cardiac arrest the only definitive treatment is CPR and a shock from a defibrillator, but a defibrillator will only shock what it deems as a “shockable rhythm”.

An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) will first analyse the rhythm of the casualty’s heart and only deliver a shock if the heart is in a certain rhythm, but what is a shockable rhythm?

In recent years, defibrillators have become increasingly available to the public in the UK. These life-saving devices can now regularly be seen in public places such as restaurants, gyms, supermarkets and train stations.

Figures from defibshop’s Cardiac Coverage report show that the number of defibrillators per 10,000 people in the UK has risen from 4.17 in 2021 to 13.71 in 2024. Despite this, many less affluent areas are still below the national average for number of defibrillators, and survival rates for Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) in these areas are lower as a consequence.