The good news is … FAST Camposol has been given the go-ahead to recommence full responding duties!
Additionally FAST is to be included in a formal ongoing collaborative agreement with Protección Civil. This will ensure that our protocols and operational standards are agreed and recognised by Protección Civil and will enable FAST to be registered with the Volunteer Association Directive. Whilst this may sound rather cumbersome and formal, it does ensure the long-term survival of FAST as a valuable addition to Protección Civil (as well as putting to rest any questions regarding the efficacy of our insurance).
Our greatest challenge at this stage is the recruitment of additional volunteer Responders – our ability to provide a full 24/7 response largely depends upon the number of qualified Responders. Whilst we have just trained seven new Responders, we are still a very small team. We are hoping to run further new Responder courses, so if you can join us, please contact us on recruitment@fast2016.org
If there is any doubt about the importance of the service and the need for additional Responders:
A true story by Richard a holiday home owner in Camposol
Tuesday 13th September 2022, whilst sitting in my car at the Galp fuel station on Camposol, pondering the day ahead, unbeknown to me, feeling quite normal, I passed out.
Luckily my son saw this prior to paying for the fuel and hastily raised the alarm on the forecourt. I was unconscious by this stage, but in the grip of a major heart attack.
Very luckily for me, and I count myself to be extremely lucky, there were close by several members both on and off duty from the registered charity FAST. They immediately started work on me with CPR and a defibrillator, as my hospital report states I had died prior to the intervention of FAST.
At the same time a very quick-thinking lady from La Caixa bank rang for the ambulance and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Having spent 5 days in ICU and 5 days on the ward at Santa Lucia hospital in Cartagena and several surgical procedures later, I am now recovering at home here on Camposol.
My message is not to talk about myself, although I considered myself a reasonably fit 62 year old man, but to get out a message of how quickly things can change and how, without the intervention of FAST, their staff, the staff at Galp fuel station, the general public and the procedures undertaken by them I probably would not be here to tell my story.
Now FASTneed your help: they need volunteers to be suitably trained to be able to help in events such as mine. I can only reiterate my previous comments that without their early attendance and early intervention and procedures undertaken, my outcome would be very different indeed. It is certain in this instance FAST saved my life.
FOR ALL MEDICAL EMERGENCIES PLEASE CALL 112 then call FAST on 868 487 015 for immediate first aid support.