BASILDON Hospital’s world renowned cardiac centre has been awarded £40,000 to spearhead life-changing research.

The Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) has been awarded the grant by Resuscitation Council UK.

It will allow the hospital’s specialist team, working alongside Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK, to support cardiac survivors and their families when they are discharged home.

The money will go towards creating virtual sessions, digital educational videos and leaflets.

Every year around 30,000 people in England are treated by emergency services following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest where the patient’s heart stops and needs emergency treatment. Basildon hospital treats around 120 of these patients a year, with more than half of those being discharged to go home.

Dr Thomas Keeble, consultant cardiologist and senior Research Fellow at the CTC, said: “Although many of those survivors will make a good recovery, there is evidence that surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest can lead to long-term physical, cognitive and psychological difficulties.

“Our two-year study will measure the impact of post-discharge support and education on the longer term quality of life for patients.”

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Cardiac arrest survivors chosen to be part of the research will have four Zoom video sessions after they are discharged from hospital, run by specialist nurses and therapists.

Each session will focus on issues commonly reported by survivors, including anxiety, depression, cognitive challenges and fatigue.

Paul Swindell, founder of Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK, said: “A family member of survivors will also be part of these sessions and hopefully benefit from the chats and information.

“They have been described as the ‘forgotten patients’ – as they are also at high risk of developing mental health difficulties due to the traumatic nature of seeing their relative collapsing, performing life-saving CPR, and being admitted to the intensive care department. So this research is very important for them as well.”

If successful the scheme could be rolled out across the world.