Except when the person lying there is a woman, that moment often stretches into hesitation. Now, it’s not that people don’t realise the seriousness of a cardiac arrest, it’s just that they are even more traumatised by the thought of touching a woman’s chest. Imagine! A body part is being so sexualised that it is not even considered in a medical context sensibly and seriously. 

A recent BBC Global Women report has brought attention to a disturbing reality in the UK: women suffering cardiac arrest in public are less likely to receive lifesaving first aid than men. And one of the biggest reasons is as uncomfortable as it is ridiculous, that people are worried about touching women “the wrong way.” 

That hesitation might be the most decent thing to hear. But not in the time of a cardiac arrest. That discomfort is costing time, and time is costing lives. Carol Wood from the Beccles Women’s Institute put it bluntly, because frankly, blunt is what this topic needs.

“I think it’s really important that men, under certain circumstances, know it’s OK to lose a bra to save a life.” It’s a sentence that sounds shocking only because society has decided women’s bodies should always come with awkwardness attached, even when someone is literally dying.

Cardiac Arrest, NOT Heart Attack 

Cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. They belong to the same family of diseases, but a cardiac arrest is more immediate, urgent and also more brutal, and that is all the more reason to respond rapidly and efficiently. 

There is nothing to think about, the math here is simple, but oh, oh… the woman’s anatomy supposedly makes it complicated? 

So why are women still being left behind?

A BBC report highlights that women are less likely to receive lifesaving first aid because people are simply awkward and hesitant about touching their chest. They may also have anxieties about using a defibrillator correctly on themselves.  It sounds absurd. But it happens.

People worry about:

• Whether touching a woman’s chest will be seen as inappropriate
  
• Whether removing clothing crosses a line
  
• Whether they’ll be accused of misconduct
  
• Whether they’re even “allowed” to do what’s medically necessary

And while that awkwardness plays out in someone’s head, a person on the ground is running out of oxygen.

Bras, AEDs, And The Thing Nobody Teaches You

Here’s the practical part that often gets missed. AEDs, Automated External Defibrillators, are designed for public emergencies. They’re the machines you see in airports, malls, gyms. They literally talk you through the process.

But AED pads must be placed directly on bare skin. A bra, especially one with underwire, can interfere with pad placement and electrical conduction. In some situations, it has to be removed or cut. This is not scandalous or something sexual, but of course, it is made out to be like that. 

It’s just how defibrillation works. Yet for many people, the thought of removing a woman’s bra in public becomes a mental roadblock. The BBC report points out that this discomfort is one reason women do not receive proper defibrillator use in time. How ridiculous is that? 

The tragedy is that the body doesn’t care about social taboos. 

Training Needs To Be More Gender-Neutral

To look into this hesitation further, the Beccles Women’s Institute partnered with East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) for a joint training session focused specifically on CPR and AED use on women.

And wait…here is where the problem comes from. Most mannequins are flat-chested, which means people practise CPR, but that doesn’t prepare them for real women’s bodies. This is not just a small design thingy; it becomes a real psychological barrier in real contexts.  

Josh Lawrence, Community Training Programme Manager at East Anglian Air Ambulance, explained that this training was about teaching differences in CPR and especially AED use on women, because that’s the key issue they’re trying to address. And let’s make it clear, it’s not because women are “complicated

Because society makes women’s bodies complicated.

“Most Women Would Rather Be Resuscitated Than Left In The Street”

Carol Wood’s words cut through the awkwardness with a special kind of clarity that sits at the intersection of survival, emergency, sexualisation and medical care. 

“We want to dispel some of that concern and ignorance because most women would rather be resuscitated than be left in the street.”

It shouldn’t even need saying. But apparently, it does, and isn’t that sad? Well, that is a conversation for another day. 

But today, no woman would choose death over someone feeling momentarily uncomfortable. And yet, that is what happens when men let their hesitation take over their common sense. 

Wood also pointed out something that feels obvious but gets lost in cultural discomfort: the general taboo about touching strangers does not apply when someone is at risk of dying. A cardiac arrest is a moment of action and first-aid; it is an emergency, and we can’t stress it enough. 

This Isn’t Just A UK Problem

While this bizarre report comes from the US, the situation in India may not be better. Actually, it may be even worse. In countries like India, where women’s bodies are often treated as inherently “sensitive,” or something “pure” and “not to be touched,” the hesitation could be even stronger. 

Moral policing doesn’t disappear in emergencies; sometimes it shows up right when it’s a life and death question. Women already face disparities in healthcare, as heart symptoms in women are frequently misread or dismissed because they don’t always match the “classic male” presentation. And delayed CPR is certainly not helping things; it is making survival thinner for women. 

This is why public health experts stress the need for:

• Awareness campaigns that take shame away from emergency care
• Clear messaging that saving a life is never inappropriate
• Normalising women’s bodies in medical fields and contexts

Because the problem isn’t anatomy, the problem is attitude and projection since centuries.

It’s OK to lose a bra to save a life 

“It’s OK to lose a bra to save a life” should not feel like something revolutionary said. It is as basic as drinking water.. and we don’t know, wearing a bra? It should feel like a reality and common sense, especially in times of distress. The context here tells everything we wished we did not know, that women’s bodies are so sexualised, that even in moments of survival, the stigma around makes people think before acting. 

Carol Wood’s statement feels provocative, we agree, because of the times we live in. But in reality, it defines a permission. And it is the permission to act and to treat women’s emergencies with the urgency they deserve. 

It is the permission to choose life over feeling eh…awkward. Because no one should die on the pavement because someone else was worried about a bra, should they?