Benevento, on February 11, will be the first city in the south to organize a "mass training" for first aid maneuvers and use of defibrillators. 400 citizens will participate in the event.
The initiative represents the third phase of the project "Benevento Cardioprotected City" strongly desired by the mayor Clemente Mastella, who explains: "We will be the first city in the South to boast the brand of Cardioprotected City. Thanks to the contribution of some entrepreneur friends, also outside the city of Benevento, and various associations and entities, we have already placed 8 defibrillators in the critical points of the various city districts. Another 3 are being allocated and by the end of the year we aim to have a total of 20 to adequately cover the districts, where there is a greater need for immediate interventions given the distances from the city center. In addition, in the new municipal urban plan we will establish that all renovation, redevelopment and new construction interventions concerning public buildings and condominiums provide specific spaces for the allocation of defibrillators. In short, we aim to achieve the highest possible degree of cardio-protection of citizens".
A concept also reiterated by the councilor delegated to Health Policies, Luca De Lipsis, who added: "The event on February 11 will be the third step of this project, which will thus enter the operational phase. On that occasion, in fact, through the instructors of the national Squicciarini Rescue network, we will teach 400 citizens life-saving maneuvers, also through the use of municipal defibrillators, in case of airway obstruction or cardiac arrest".
The councilor delegated to the Districts, Loredana Iannelli, in turn highlighted the involvement of the peripheral areas of the city in the project: "We are studying where to place the defibrillators in the districts, taking into account the agglomerates with a greater presence of citizens, the distances from the city hospital structures and the state of practicability of the roads".
The doctor of the L'Albero del Cuore–Squicciarini Rescue srl training school, Molinario Pasqualino, explained the importance of the "mass training" scheduled for February 11: "This event, the first of its kind to be organized in the South, will allow to teach a large number of citizens how to carry out the first interventions of aid effectively while waiting for the arrival of the advanced 118 rescue services".
This last aspect was also reiterated by the head of the 118 service of the Asl, Ciriaco Pedicini: "Every minute that passes, you lose from 7 to 10% of the possibility of saving a human life. That's why, especially in this period of great difficulty for the 118 due to the lack of doctors, the support of citizens who participate in a training course and are therefore able to save a human life by activating the defibrillator and starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers is very important".