Swiss Mountain Aid equips "First Responders
Joél Rumo is celebrating his birthday twice this year. Due to an undiagnosed heart defect, the 23-year-old suffered cardiac arrest just under a year ago. A member of the First Responder Plus association in the Sense district of Fribourg was on the scene within minutes and was able to resuscitate him. It is only because the rescue chain worked so well that Joél is alive today. In order to save more lives, Swiss Mountain Aid supports the establishment and expansion of "First Responder" groups in mountain regions.
It happened in 2018. The young carpenter Joél Rumo was in Plasselb in the Fribourg Oberland on a civil defense exercise. A small stream was to be diverted. Suddenly, Joél felt funny. He sat down - and keeled over in front of his colleagues. Cardiac arrest, a congenital heart defect that no one knew about until now. The colleagues reacted correctly. One immediately started CPR, another dialed 144.
The emergency center offered the Outpatient clinic but at the same time also the Emergency responders of the First Responder Plus association in the Sense district of Freiburg. An alarm went off on Markus Stempfel's smartphone. Stempfel, who works in neighboring Plaffeien, grabbed his emergency backpack with the defibrillator inside, put on his luminous gilet and swung onto his scooter. Less than five minutes later, he was already on the scene. He set up the Cardiac arrest and inserted the defibrillator. Twice he had to "shock" the stopped heart with an electric shock, then Joél was back among the living. In the meantime, the ambulance arrived and took over.
Joél was taken to hospital and lay in a coma for several days. But he woke up again and, thanks to the quick action of everyone involved, did not suffer any consequential damage. Today, he wears a pacemaker and should not exert himself too hard when doing sports, but can otherwise live his life without restrictions.
Equipment is expensive
Without the perfect functioning of the rescue chain and the association First Responder Plus, Joél would not be alive today. The association was founded in 2014 with the support of Ambulanz und Rettungsdienst Sense AG on the initiative of paramedic Mo El Attar. "Here in the Fribourg Oberland, as in many mountain areas, it can happen due to the topography that it takes up to half an hour until we are on site with the ambulance. But every minute counts, especially in the case of heart failure," he explains.
The idea behind first responders: Well-trained laypersons support the professional rescue forces. In order to be able to perform this task, however, they must not only be well trained and directly summoned by the emergency call center. They must also have the necessary equipment. Each of the 20 or so members of the Sense First Responders has their own emergency backpack, complete with defibrillator and oxygen, which they carry with them as often as possible. In the car, in the office, at home. Such a backpack costs around 5000 Swiss francs. The cost of setting up a new "first responder" group is therefore considerable.
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