The Red Cross and the Heart Foundation received many new registrations for first aid courses and civilian assistance on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. People also searched the sites for information about resuscitation and the theme of cardiac arrest more often than usual. During the European Championship match against Finland on Saturday evening, Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed and saw how he was being resuscitated.
The Heart Foundation received about three hundred new registrations for civilian aid workers on Saturday. “On a normal day there are 40,” said a spokesman.
A civilian rescuer is part of the CPR call system Heart RateNow. If someone in the area goes into cardiac arrest, the first responder will receive a call to perform CPR or get the nearest AED. On the foundation’s website, people searched about three times as much as usual on the topic of cardiac arrest and 2.5 times as much on CPR.
Many registrations for first aid course
A spokesman for the Red Cross says that about eighty people registered for a first aid course on Saturday evening. “That is about 333 percent more than normal. The increase in visits to the login page was more than 550 percent higher. So the number of registrations is likely to increase further,” the spokesperson said. Thousands of people also watched the Red Cross explainer video on how to resuscitate on YouTube.
Almost three quarters of the Dutch do not know what to do if someone has a cardiac arrest, according to research by the Red Cross. “If you act within 6 minutes, the chance of survival increases by 50 percent. That is why it is important that as many people as possible know how to resuscitate,” said the aid organization.
Footballer Eriksen collapsed
Many Dutch people were glued to the tube on Saturday evening after Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during the European Championship match against Finland. On average, nearly two million people watched the impromptu broadcast of an hour and a half after the game was halted.
Eriksen received the ball on a throw-in and fell forward into the grass, for no reason. The game was immediately stopped and players gestured for the caretakers to get onto the field as quickly as possible. They soon received reinforcements from medical personnel. Television images showed how Eriksen was resuscitated. The Danish federation announced that he is conscious and in stable condition in a hospital in Copenhagen.
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