ProTrainings UK Blog

A woman from Tunbridge Wells in Kent who is blind and has epilepsy is getting help from a very special assistance dog. Visit the guide dogs for the blind website

Hetty, a black Labrador/Retriever cross is the first dog in the UK to be trained as both a guide dog and a seizure alert dog and has been officially handed over to her new owner, Toni Brown-Griffin.

Two-year-old Hetty had already been trained as a guide dog; she was then specially selected by Sheffield charity Support Dogs to learn how to identify the onset of an epileptic seizure. Hetty will now help Toni, who is registered blind, get out and about and manage her seizures.

Toni, 42, said: “Hetty is a phenomenal dog, I could never have imagined how good she could be. Not only does she help guide me but she is always on the watch out for signs of a seizure. If it is a minor seizure she will come to a halt and sit, but at an offset angle, not straight like she normally does. But, if it is a major event, she will warn me by putting her chin on my knee or pawing at me. This gives me time to get to a place of safety.”

Chief executive of Guide Dogs Richard Leaman said: “Dual dogs like Hetty transform the lives of people living with sight loss and other disabilities. This is a great example of two charities working together. We are confident that Hetty will help Toni live independently for many years to come and we look forward to doing more work with Support Dogs.”

Rita Howson, Support Dogs’ Director of Operations said: “We know Hetty is the first dog to deal with these two disabilities in the country, but we can find no mention of a similar dog anywhere else so we think she is totally unique and could be the first in the world. It is a remarkable testament to the growing relationship between Support Dogs and Guide Dogs.” Visit the guide dogs for the blind website

The British Heart Foundation is urging people to forget “mouth-to-mouth” and to concentrate on chest compressions when performing CPR.  ”Hands-only CPR” has previously been supported by the Resuscitation Council (UK).  But it is now being promoted in a new advertising campaign featuring footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones.  New polling by the BHF suggests many feel worried about the idea of giving the “kiss of life”.

Watch the video click here This is nothing new in our training and the course is taught the same and full CPR training must still be trained, it is excellent advice to untrained people and as an alternative to full CPR to anyone.  All our courses have always had chest only compression training videos.

The official position of the BHF is now that anyone who does not have CPR training should ignore the kiss of life in favour of hard and fast compressions in the centre of the chest.   A new poll conducted across the UK and involving 2,000 respondents showed nearly half were put off from performing CPR because of a lack of knowledge.

A fifth worried specifically about the thought of the kiss of life or about contracting an infectious disease.  Four in 10 people were worried about being sued if they did something wrong, even though the BHF argues no such case has ever succeeded in Britain.   ”The kiss of life can often be daunting for untrained bystanders who want to help when someone has collapsed with a cardiac arrest,” said Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the BHF.

She said the kiss of life remained the “gold standard” of CPR, but added if a person had not had training the best option would be to just do chest compressions.

Bee Gees hit  -  The BHF is also suggesting people hum to the Bee Gees hit Stayin’ Alive, to get the tempo of chest compressions right, although others have in recent months questioned whether this is appropriate, suggesting it may lead to compressions which are too shallow.  The new BHF advert features Vinnie Jones in his traditional hardman guise, administering chest compressions to a Bee Gees backbeat after being thrown an unconscious body by his henchmen.

Commenting on the new campaign, he said: “There really shouldn’t be any messing about when it comes to CPR. If you’re worried about the kiss of life just forget it and push hard and fast in the centre of the chest.

“Hands-only CPR should give have-a-go heroes the confidence to step in and help when somebody is in cardiac arrest.”  Ms Mason said everyone should learn what to do: “Thirty thousand people have a cardiac arrest in the UK every single year and half of those are witnessed, but in most cases no-one acts, no-one knows what to do, people panic.  ”If it was us, we would all want our loved ones and ourselves to be saved, wouldn’t we?”

More information http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/life-saving-skills/hands-only-cpr.aspx

The treatment for inserting a Stent to treat heart conditions is in the news with Prince Philip. It is a simple and  effective procedure with great success.

The procedure know as Coronary Angioplasty is a procedure to treat the fatty narrowing of the arteries to increase the blood flow to the heart. This fatty  deposits, Plaque build up over time causing the arteries to harden and narrow reducing the amount of blood that may pass. This harding is called atherosclerosis and is a common disorder and can affect any artery in the body but when it affects the coronary arteries it is called Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).

The process of Angioplasty can help to restore the blood flow where the arteries have become narrowed through key hole surgery techniques. Medication is given to numb and relax the body.  A thin plastic tube, catheter, is then passed through the groin or sometimes the arm, guided to the heart by the use of dye and x-ray techniques to the affected area of the heart. Doctors can see clearly the results to ensure the correct area is treated.

A stent is like a small cage tube that can be expanded to open the artery. When the catheter reaches the area to be treated, a stent is inserted and a balloon inflated to ensure the stent is exactly where required.  The stent is left in place and then the catheter is removed.  The process is done in 1-2 hours and in many cases the patient can return home the some day others are left in hospital to ensure a full recovery.  There were over 80,000 procedures carried out in 2008 and estimated that there are over 100,000 procedures carried out in the UK every year now.

We have adapted all our Anaphylaxis courses to include the new Jext Auto Injector. This auto injector is not a “new version of the epi-pen” it is a different brand and has a lot of benefits over other auto injectors.

• Longer shelf life of 2 years
• Better temperature range allowing for a more stable drug
• Needle cover when activated
• Comes in a case to keep safe
• Simply put on the leg then pushed to fire the unit but could be used the same as an epi-pen if by mistake

We have added a Anaphylaxis student manual to the course which is downloaded once you attend your ProTrainings course.  The Jext is not available in all area’s yet but this is expanding rapidly across the country so both systems will be available next year and some retraining will be needed.  On completion of the ProTrainings Anaphylaxis course you will receive a free student manual, login and other features as well as a ProTrainings wall certificate/wallet card.

For more information please email support@protrainings.eu or call 01223 911805

“Salt is good for us after all,” according to the Daily Express. The newspaper said that a “controversial new study suggests that salt in the diet can lessen our chances of suffering heart disease and strokes”.

The Express story itself should be taken with a large pinch of salt, as the study doesn’t suggest that eating high levels of salt is good for us. Instead, the research found that in white people with normal blood pressure, a low-salt diet only slightly reduced blood pressure but led to small increases in substances such as cholesterol.

Read the full report on the NHS website

A method of communicating with brain damaged patients who appear to be in a vegetative state has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Belgium.  Writing in The Lancet medical journal they describe how they measured electrical activity in the brain to detect consciousness.  The technique, known as EEG, is painless and involves attaching electrodes to the head.

Doctors hope it can be used as a diagnostic tool in homes and hospitals.

For the full details click here

Eating more cereals and whole grains could reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer, a BMJ study says. Researchers from Imperial College London found that for every 10g a day increase in fibre intake, there was a 10% drop in the risk of bowel cancer.

But their analysis of 25 previous studies found that fruit and vegetable fibre did not reduce risk.  A cancer charity called for more detailed research on the quantity and type of fibre to eat.

Read the full report on the BBC website click here

You can follow ProTrainings Europe and Pro Pet First Aid on their own iTunes channels for download as video and audio podcasts.   We will be increasing these over the next few months to include more subjects.

Follow ProTrainings EU at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/pro-first-aid-radio-podcasts/id435073858

Follow Pro Pet First Aid at  http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/pro-pet-first-aid-podcast/id441002834

We now accept credit and debit cards via HSBC gateway if you prefer not to use PayPal.  We can also take payments over the phone or BASCs.  If you are a company and want to set up a free company dashboard, email or call 01223 911805 and we will set this up for you and quote for the courses you need.

More information on our courses visit www.protrainings.eu

We have updated most of the student manuals and added some new ones.  To see the latest manuals for your course logins in and download the book.  As you have access to the  our sites for 8 months you are kept up to date with the latest course material.  For more information on our courses visit www.protrainings.eu or find a local course at www.procourses.co.uk