Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest has led to an appeal
6000 Swedes suffer cardiac arrest each year, but only 600 of them survive.
There is very little.
That’s why Porgy Salming, Svens, and Sarah Sjostrom are committed to making us better at saving each other.
The idea was born in June 2021.
Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field during the European Football Championship and needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation to survive. There and then we talked about cardiac arrest and how to act if someone was injured.
Bjorn Gadland, an ambulance nurse, said such vital knowledge should not be lost. He knew all too well the numbers, that 90 percent of all Swedes who had cardiac arrest outside of hospitals died.
To spread knowledge about CPR and get more defibrillators in the country, the Heart Appeal has begun.
– That’s because you forget too quickly. And if you forget, the uncertainty comes with, “What if I get it wrong,” Gadland says.
Spread like fire extinguishers
Do you have time to feel insecure in case of cardiac arrest?
– number. You have plenty of time to break a leg, but every second counts for cardiac arrest. The survival rate drops by 10 percent with every passing minute, so people don’t think much but act. A person in cardiac arrest is actually a dead person – and you can’t die any more. So whatever you do, you make it something better.
Hopefully, heartworms spread like fire extinguishers. They are everywhere – and above all they are visible and not hidden in any closet. But Jadeland also understands that cardiac arrest will occur in places where there are no pacemakers, and so he hopes that schools and sports associations will become better at teaching children CPR.
“Now I know more”
To communicate his message, Bjorn Gadland tried to get ambassadors. It turned out that it wasn’t difficult at all. Some of the sporting features I attached to for the good cause were Trolls Morigarde, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Borghi Salming, Thomas Ravelli and Sarah Sjostrom.
and old SVT journalist Staffan Lindberg.
An elite runner who fell and died during Sylvesterloupt in Kalmar. The same thing happened at the Vasaluppet and Stockholm Marathon. We are used to it. But we don’t have to do that, says Lindberg.
Were you in any way able to help Christian Eriksen when he collapsed?
– No, then. I had no education and know nothing about it. But today I know more.