Här delar vi med oss om våra erfarenheter av livet, alltifrån hälsa, ledarskap och platsen där vi bor. Vi är också starkt engagerade i arbetet kring att öka kunskapen kring hjärtstopp❤️
Last week Annmargreth and I were invited to a resuscitation symposium in Copenhagen. Organizers were the companies Medidyne and Zoll and the theme was Improving resuscitation outcomes together.
Knut Clem, CEO Medidyne started the day reminding that it takes a system fo save lives
It was an interesting day with actors and participants from our Nordic countries and guest speakers from the US.
Annmargreth and I told our story about my cardiac arrest five years ago, the week in hospital in Copenhagen, first time at home, rehabilitation and what we have learned.
Our partner Johan Israelsson from Region Kalmar County and Linneuniversitetet was also invited to participate with the title Health related Quality of life after cardiac arrest and his participation was appreciated.
We also listened to two interesting talks about debriefing, Hot debriefing and performance data and Data Driven, Performance Focused Debriefing.
Rasmus Meyer Lyngby, Denmark and Elisabeth A. Hunt, US
We noted during the day that although Sweden is doing very well in the area of cardiac arrest, there is much to learn from others, not least Denmark. In Sweden, 10% of all those who have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive, in Denmark the survival rate is 15%. Our assessment is that there is a completely different understanding in Denmark that everyone needs to know CPR. There are also more AEDs and they are more often available 24/7. Another example is that in Denmark there is a requirement to know CPR when you get your driver’s license.
We saw lot’s of AEDs available 24/7 when we were back in Rønne the year after my cardiac arrestA nice and interesting visit in Copenhagen, and nice to meet many good friends. To the left: Meeting SMS lifesavers. To the right: Lunch in Nyhavn
Thanks a lot to Medidyne and ZOLL Medical for inviting us to this well-arranged day! There is certainly still a lot to do, to improve resuscitation outcomes together.
It was a very special feeling to step into the conference room, which was the auditorium of the university hospital in Lund, the same place where many years ago I took my degree as a physiotherapist. This time I was invited to talk about my cardiac arrest and about the work that my wife and I engage in through the Swedish network for cardiac arrest survivors and their relatives.
Moderator at our seminar was Christian Hassager, a cardiologist and former director of a specialized cardiology intensive care unit at the University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and now Professor in this field at Copenhagen University. In September 2017, when I had my cardiac arrest and was treated at Rigshospitalet, he was the head of the department where I was treated. I was so glad to meet him and once again to express my thanks for excellent care. My grandson Svante had an explanation, he was then three years old. – ”Grandpa, your heart was broken, but now it’s mended” ❤️
Photo: Kristofer Årestedt
During our presentation, Johan presented current research and what efforts are underway in the area of life after a cardiac arrest, and I talked about my cardiac arrest, about my fantastic lifesavers and about the entire care chain that gave me the possibility to continue living. When I had my cardiac arrest, I had a public role as the president of the Swedish Association of Physiotherapists, (a mission that I finished two years ago). That made us immediately decide to be transparent about what happened and we have therefore told our story about the cardiac arrest publicly many times. We hope that in this way we will be able to help others who have suffered a cardiac arrest and their relatives.
I also talked about what my wife Annmargreth and I have done and learned in the past five years.First of all, we have learned to take advantage of every day, of the opportunity to spend time with children and grandchildren and to remember that every day is a gift.
Photo: Kristofer Årestedt
We have also learned that it’s important to do what I can do myself to have good living habits. We use at least one to two hours per day to exercise and to be out in nature. We also work to spread knowledge about CPR, AEDs, SMS lifesavers and the 112 app. And so it has become a habit to always check where the nearest AED is. It should go without saying that all conferences started with the brief information: There is the emergency exit, there is the toilet – and there is the nearest AED.
I also talked about the Swedish network for cardiac arrest survivors and their relatives. At the beginning of 2021, we started a Facebook group. In the beginning, we were a few survivors and relatives who, together with the Swedish Resuscitation council and the Swedish Heart and Lung Association, founded the network.
Today we are 300 members and we are getting more every week. Nowadays, the request to join the network can come just a week after the person got a cardiac arrest, and it feels very meaningful to be able to share experiences and to be able to support each other.
In the network, it has become clear that there are shortcomings in the care of relatives. Of course, all the focus easily falls on the survivor, but next to the survivor there are always relatives, who are also hit hard and who need better attention. Here, too, our network can contribute to providing support to each other and to exchanging experiences.
The entire conference was filled with interesting talks and presentations of new research results. A presentation that made a particularly strong impression on me was a speech by Kelly Sawyer, an Emergency Medicine physician and Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who herself had suffered a cardiac arrest eleven years ago.
She gave a very interesting overview of the whole field of cardiac arrest, and particularly emphasized the field of cardiac arrest survivorship.
It was instructive and very inspiring to participate in this conference. Many thanks to the organizers for the invitation and for a very well conducted conference.
