‘Don’t be shy about cutting a bra off to save a life’ – CPR hero

A life-saver has urged men not to hesitate if they need to deliver life-saving care to women whose hearts have stopped beating.

Peter McLauglin saved a stranger’s life when she was having a cardiac arrest.

In order to give her life-saving treatment he had to cut away her bra.

But new polling suggests that a significant number of men would hesitate to perform CPR on a female stranger in public.

St John Ambulance warned that hesitation was “costing lives”.

Nikki Sanderson and her mum Jude Sanderson, who suffered a cardiac arrest in 2021 / Credit: PA

A survey of UK adults, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of the charity, found that three in 10 men would hesitate because of concerns that they would be accused of inappropriate touching, and 20% said they would be concerned that someone may film it.

In communities around the UK some 40,000 cardiac arrests occur each year, and the estimated survival rate for these so called out-of-hospital cardiac arrests is less than one in 10, St John Ambulance said.

“Women are less likely to receive CPR in public and hesitation is costing lives,” said St John Ambulance’s medical director, Dr Lynn Thomas.

“Every second counts in a cardiac arrest and doing something is always better than doing nothing.

“It’s important we don’t shame anyone for hesitating as these fears are real and understandable, but no-one should ever feel afraid to try to save a life.”

Mr McLauglin, a St John Ambulance volunteer, shared his story of saving a stranger’s life in a public toilet while he was off duty.

The 45-year-old woman had collapsed in Kingston-upon-Thames Guildhall, south London.

Mr McLauglin started CPR while calling for a defibrillator, and requested some scissors to cut the woman’s bra open so he could place defibrillator pads in the correct position.

Nikki Sanderson with St John Ambulance volunteer Kash Mahmood / Credit: PA

He performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until medics from London Ambulance Service arrived.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said.

“I either cut the bra off to get the defib pads on her or I don’t cut it off and she’s going to be leaving here in a very different situation.

“You can’t hang around waiting for someone else to decide whether or not they feel comfortable about that.

“If you hesitate, it can be a whole different outcome.

“The main thing for me was that lady survived.”

Mr McLauglin added: “In that situation, you don’t see a man or a woman, you don’t think about gender.

“I’ve been brought up in a very traditional way to treat women with the utmost respect.

“But when a woman collapses in front of you and you need to remove her shirt and cut her bra off to save her life, you just have to put aside any embarrassment it may cause and save a life.”

Nikki Sanderson partners with St John Ambulance to launch the CPR bra / Credit: PA

St John Ambulance is highlighting the issue of hesitation as part of its latest campaign.

The campaign is being backed by Hollyoaks and Coronation Street actor Nikki Sanderson.

She said: “In 2021 my mum had a cardiac arrest, and we had to perform CPR until paramedics arrived. If we’d hesitated, she wouldn’t be here today.

“It’s horrifying that so many people say they are less likely to help a woman in public – especially because they’re afraid about people filming and sharing it online.

“That woman could be someone’s mum, sister or daughter. We need to remove these barriers so we can ‘bust the taboo’ because everyone deserves the same chance of survival.”