Only 23% of men would step in to save your life in an emergency.
Look around your office. It’s probably filled with colleagues and friends that you have worked with a for long time. They are people you can rely on, people you can trust. But if you were to have a potentially life-threatening injury at work, would or could they step in to save you? If you’re colleagues are mainly men, the answer is probably no. New research reveals that a staggering 77 % of men wouldn’t intervene in a medical emergency, even if it could save a life.
In fact, due to a lack of basic first aid knowledge, 35% of men fear they would make a situation worse if they tried to step in. And whilst women did fare slightly better, the difference wasn’t huge, with only 31% percent of females feeling confident enough to help in an emergency whilst another 31% feared they would also make it worse.
According to our survey:
- 35% of people didn’t know to put pressure on a bleeding wound.
- 35% of people would know to start CPR and chest compressions if somebody stopped breathing.
- 36% wouldn’t step in at all if someone was choking.
Over the past 12 months, HSE.gov reported 144 deaths in the workplace due to injury 2 . Research commissioned by the British Red Cross and conducted by the University of Manchester shows that up to 59% of pre-hospital deaths from injury could be prevented if more people had a basic knowledge of first aid 3. That’s around 85 lives saved a year.
So, whatever your gender, if you want to feel safe and confident in the knowledge that you and those around you could step in should an emergency arise, getting a basic knowledge of first aid is a great place to start.