Could I have saved my parents’ lives if I’d been taught CPR?

Cameron McGerr should have been with his parents to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary last month.

Instead, Lynne and Kevin McGerr’s 16-year-old son stood in front of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament and revealed he had lost both to heart conditions.

He believes he might have been able to help at least one of his parents in their moment of crisis if he had been taught life-saving CPR skills at a younger age.

Having already persuaded his school in Inverclyde to introduce the first aid training, he now wants to see it introduced to schools across Scotland.

Cameron’s dad Kevin died from a cardiac arrest in February this year. It came three years after Lynne suffered a fatal heart attack.

The couple had been married since 30 September 1995.

“After my dad died I kind of thought maybe I should do something about this,” said Cameron, a pupil at Clydeview Academy in Gourock.

“The first time I kind of thought it was bad luck but the second time I thought ‘well I was 15, I really should have been able to know what to do’.”

Now Cameron and his classmates are learning how to give CPR – a potentially life-saving treatment to pump blood around the body, thereby securing extra time to get a defibrillator which can be used to try and restart the heart.

He hopes more schools across Scotland will soon do the same and adopt his campaign, which is called Pulse of Life.

“It could be your mum, it could be your dad, it could be your sister or it could be a friend, neighbour, stranger,” said Cameron, who now lives with his aunt.

“The truth is it can happen to anyone at any time. I think that’s what a lot of people don’t realise, and I think that’s why everyone needs to be fully equipped to be able to step in and do it.”

When Cameron spoke to MSPs at Holyrood last month, he estimated that when his dad collapsed he lost about two and a half minutes of time panicking about what to do.

He said: “I believe that if I had known CPR, I would have been able to save my dad. I would have been more confident while performing CPR, worrying less as his ribs broke under the force of my hands.

“I would not have had to wait for the 999 operator to instruct me in what to do. In my panic, I lost probably two and a half minutes, which instantly decreased his chance of survival by 25%.”

British Heart Foundation figures suggest around 3,800 people experience a cardiac arrest out of hospital in Scotland each year – with a survival rate of one in 10.

Health groups and medical charities believe that number could improve if more people felt confident about performing CPR, and were able to take action quickly.

“I’m not doing it for me and I’m not doing it to try and prove the point – I’m doing it because I know it will make a difference” says Cameron of the campaign.

Clydeview pupils and staff have responded with enthusiasm to the CPR lessons, saying it has given them confidence about performing it if needed.

Craig Gibson, the headteacher at Clydeview, told BBC Scotland News that Cameron had shown “outstanding resilience in the face of such tragedy” over the past three years.

“Cameron and I have met a number of times and he’s spoken to me quite openly about the impact of the loss that’s had on him, but more importantly the changes that he would like to make,” says Craig.

The school is hopeful all current S1 pupils will be taught CPR by the end of the current academic year. The teaching model will then be shared with other secondary schools throughout the region.

However, Cameron has already seen his campaign go further afield, leading to his appearance at the Scottish Parliament.

It came on the day of what would have been his parents’ wedding anniversary.

Despite his nerves, he movingly recalled waking up to his dad screaming, unsure of what to do after his mum’s heart attack.

“I wonder whether, if I had been given CPR training, I would have been able to step in and make a difference.

“However, I cannot live life wondering ‘what if?’. I need to live to make a difference for other people who might encounter the same problem.”

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has now written to Cameron offering to meet him.

A Scottish government spokesperson said it would continue to work with partners to make sure pupils have the opportunity to learn CPR, with many schools already doing so.

However far his campaign goes, and whatever difference it makes, Cameron is sure of one thing – that his parents would be proud of what he’s doing.

“I think they’d be a bit, not caught off guard, but a bit shocked because here’s this shy boy that didn’t like confrontation, didn’t like public speaking, who just went and addressed the country’s parliament.

“They would be immensely proud, and I knew that even before I’d done this.

“They would always be proud, no matter what, and I think that’s what keeps me going.”