Howe of Fife Community First Responder saves husband’s life
Mary Kinninmonth’s Community First Responder (CFR) instincts and training saved her husband’s life when he suffered a cardiac arrest at home earlier this year.
John collapsed and Mary immediately started CPR, as she recognised, he wasn’t breathing normally. Their son Michael phoned for an ambulance and kept John’s airway open whilst Mary carried out CPR. Mary used the defib from their Community First Response bag and continued CPR until John started to regain consciousness, just as the ambulance crew arrived. After a hospital stay, which included having an internal defibrillator and pacemaker fitted, John has been recovering well.
John has been doing so well that he has been able to resume his own role as a CFR again. Mary and John are both Scottish Ambulance Service volunteer community first responders in the Howe of Fife group, which they joined in 2023. The group respond to potentially life-threatening emergencies such as a cardiac arrest, heart attack, stroke, or seizure in the vital first few minutes before an ambulance crew arrives. The Howe of Fife CFR group cover areas from Gateside to Cupar, and from Newburgh to Falkland.
Laura Cameron, Community Resilience Team Leader, said: “Mary’s quick thinking, calm leadership, and CFR skills kicked in instantly, giving John the immediate care he needed at home.
“Mary is a testament to the value of our community responders and the extraordinary difference they make – not just to strangers, but to the people they love the most.”
Mary Kinninmonth said: “Only one in ten people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest and had I not been trained in CPR John would not be alive today.
“I would encourage everyone to learn CPR so that these odds reduce and others are able to share our fortunate outcome.”
If you’d like to join your local CFR group or simply find out more about them, head here: https://www.scottishambulance.com/your-community/community-first-responders/
If you'd like to learn CPR, head to Save a Life Scotland's website for more information: https://www.savealife.scot/learn-cpr/