Red Cross Blogs

Sex workers trained to use defibrillators

By Mark Cox
February 23, 2010 at 5:35 pm

People can have a heart attack anywhere – and that’s why you’ll find defibrillators in all kinds of publicly used venues these days: shopping malls, sports clubs, brothels. Hang on, brothels?

Well, yes. In Switzerland, sex workers at several brothels are being trained to use defibrillators in order to prevent clients with heart problems dying on them. The move follows a recent spate of incidents – some fatal – where mainly elderly customers found the services on offer a little too demanding.

Heart attacks have now claimed several customers in the Lugano area, and local health experts are backing the move to stock defibrillators in sex clubs and brothels. And as one brothel owner put it: “Having customers die on us isn’t exactly good publicity.”

Modern defibrillators are relatively quick and easy for the lay person to use, and in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death. Having said that, there’s nothing better than knowing what to do if someone has a heart attack.

As a Red Cross writer, I come across literally scores of stories every year where someone having just a little first aid knowledge ends up saving someone’s life. So why not sign up for a first aid course or even just get some tips online? One day you might be might glad you did.

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Tags: emergency response, First aid, first aid tips, first aid training

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 5:35 pm and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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