Hato Hone St John wants Kiwis to play their part and help prevent 1800 New Zealanders dying from a cardiac arrest every year.

Hato Hone St John Head of Community Education Jacci Tatnell says it's an unsettling and scary statistic.

'The scariest part is that most of these deaths are preventable and only occur because bystanders do not know the three key steps to intervene a cardiac arrest: CALL. PUSH. SHOCK,” Jacci says.

'On world Restart a Heart Day, Sunday 16 October, Hato Hone St John, together with the Council of Ambulance Authorities, are joining forces to raise awareness about out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the importance of CPR and knowing how to use an AED.”

A cardiac arrest is a medical emergency and can strike anyone, at any time, at any age, anywhere, with three quarters occurring at home.

'It can happen to a small child in bed, a young parent mowing the lawns, or an athlete on the field. What's even more alarming, is our most recent Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Reports have shown survival rates have declined year on year since 2020.

'This is why we are strongly the public to undertake vital CPR and AED training to potentially save their loved-one's life.”

Jacci says having a bystander or family member willing and confident to start CPR can make the difference between life and death.

'A patient's chance of survival falls 10 percent for every minute a patient is in cardiac arrest and does not receive CPR or shock from a defibrillator.

'Bystander CPR in the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest is imperative especially when the average response time for an ambulance to reach these critical patients is eight minutes. Time is crucial.”

Learning how to restart a heart. Photo: NZ Resuscitation Council.

For Restart a Heart Day and for the first time since 2019, there will be public events held across Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea to help share the message, helping educate the public in CPR and how to use an AED.

Hato Hone St John events planned on and around the day but is also dedicating the entire month to training 10,000 people in its 3 Steps for Life programme to equip as many people as it can in how to do CPR and use an AED.

Restart a Heart Day will also be running its social media challenge called, #9for9challenge. To pay respect to the 9/10 people who don't survive cardiac arrest, social media users are being asked to film themselves performing nine compressions on a pillow, teddy or stuffed toy and tag nine friends to take part.

Remember to the 3 Steps for Life: CALL. PUSH. SHOCK. To save a life.

Facts and figures:

• New Zealand has more than 6,000 people registered as GoodSAM responders.
  AED numbers in the community is growing, with more than 5,500 registered throughout the country. That number has been bolstered at marae across New Zealand too, with gifts of AEDs into vulnerable communities thanks to ASB, with the support of Phillips and St John. In addition, all ASB branches have AEDs.
• Watch a video demonstration of how to perform CPR and how to use an AED.
• Learn the 3 Steps for Life.
• Register for the GoodSAM app if you know how to perform CPR and use an AED.
  Download the free St John mobile CPR app for instructions on how to do CPR.
  Learn how to locate the nearest public AED at aedlocations.co.nz or download the AED locations app.
• Participate in the #9for9 challenge on social media to raise awareness about the seriousness of cardiac arrest and remember the nine out of 10 people who don't survive.