We hear about a defibrillator saving the life of a top-performing footballer and think if someone so fit may need one I’m glad there is one (or more than one) in my community but I guess we don’t really expect it to happen even though defibrillators have now become a common presence in our neighbourhoods.
Defibrillators are expensive to buy and need to be maintained, a charge that most often is paid by the community via the Parish Council precept which is part of our Council Tax. Is it a price worth paying?
In Longdown recently we had the answer to that question when the defibrillator, located at the village hall, was used to good effect and saved the life of a man in cardiac arrest, alongside over 30 minutes of CPR by other heroes present who luckily had been trained in both CPR and defibrillator use. Both of these skills are needed in such an emergency. Even with the defibrillator restarting the heart, CPR may need to be maintained until the emergency services arrive.
Hearing about such an event so close to home, I am sure we must all be asking ourselves if we would know what to do in such a situation. The defibrillator is extremely easy to use as it talks you through the whole process and CPR is easy to learn.
So a refresher course in defibrillator use and CPR is going to be made available to the local community in due course. Details will be posted on the website.
