When over 10,000 spectators visit the Vojens Speedway Center in connection with this year's Danish WC Grand Prix, on Saturday 10 September, it may be in the minds of the spectators that the national Danish speedway arena now has a defibrillator.
In addition to the great WC Grand Prix, Vojens has a number of other races and events, to which many people come.
- On the board of Vojens Speedway Klub, we agreed that the stadium must of course have a defibrillator, which can be absolutely crucial in saving human life if a person suddenly suffers a cardiac arrest, which happens on average 13 times a day in Denmark, says board member Lars Krogh, who is a day-to-day task leader at Fire & Rescue in Southern Jutland.
It is TrygFonden that has donated the defibrillator, and the other day Lars Krogh received the new defibrillator from Mikkel Linnet, representative of TrygFonden's regional council in Region Southern Denmark. The defibrillator is set up outdoors near the main entrance of the Vojens Speedway Center, so it is available around the clock. The defibrillator is accompanied by a course in life-saving first aid for eight people in November.
In Denmark, there are currently almost 23,000 registered defibrillators, and the TrygFonden donates approx. 100 defibrillators per year upon application.
- It is a really good initiative that Vojens Speedway Klub has taken to get a defibrillator hung up and to be trained in life-saving first aid. When a person suffers a cardiac arrest, quick help is paramount. For every minute that passes after the cardiac arrest occurs and until resuscitation is started, the chance of survival decreases by approximately 10 per cent So it really is a race against time. One of the most effective treatments for cardiac arrest is an electric shock to the heart. That is why it is so important that there are more defibrillators around the country, so that help is close if the accident is out, says Mikkel Linnet.
Become a heart runner and help save lives
TrygFonden's Hjerteløberordning is intended to give more people the chance to survive a cardiac arrest outside of hospital in Denmark. Every year around 5,000 people in Denmark have a cardiac arrest outside hospital, 14 percent of them survive.
As a heart runner, the emergency center can alert you via the Heart Runner app if there is a cardiac arrest near you, so you can run to the scene and begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation or bring a defibrillator to the scene before the ambulance arrives. You can register for the TrygFonden Hjerteløber, regardless of where you live in Denmark - you just have to be 18 years old. Read more about the heart runner scheme and register here: https://hjertestarter.dk/hjerteloeber/bliv-hjerteloeber
Find the defibrillators
See where the nearest registered defibrillator is located www.hjertestarter.dk or via the app "TrygFonden Hjertestart", which can be downloaded free of charge for iPhone, Windows and Android. Here you can also learn more about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of defibrillators, and you can find relevant information about purchasing and hanging up defibrillators, as well as how to register your defibrillator at hjertestarter.dk.