GN have invested in an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) for our premises. A small sign has been fitted to the exterior of the building to advise we have a defibrillator on the premises. We also arranged the relevant training through Lucky2bhere for as many of our office based employees as possible. Our immediate neighbours were informed of the defibrillator, as well as this news article on our web site and have used both Facebook and Twitter to highlight the fact that we have it.
Obviously the defibrillator is for saving lives. We also have a duty to promote and inform how essential these pieces of equipment actually may be to all of our lives, to that of our kids, parents, friends etc. Consequently, if you are speaking to anyone or if you have your own Facebook or Twitter account, please mention you have one in your office and simply ask if everyone else does or in their high school, community hall, nightclub, library, hotel etc.
You do not need to be a first aider to use one of these. The machine speaks to you as soon as you open it and once you place the pads on the person it looks for a pulse. If it finds one, it won’t shock them. However, the training is essential in giving everyone the confidence to use it and to gain an understanding of how best to use it. You only have 10 minutes to save someone who has a cardiac arrest and isn’t breathing. By using a defibrillator, to re-start their heart along with CPR, may just be enough until the ambulance arrives and the paramedics take over.
One of the stats that we have been made aware of is that in Scotland an average of 1 in 50 people who suffer cardiac arrest are saved. In America, it is every 1-2. Defibrillators are mandatory in Denmark. Whilst they may not be able to save everyone, they can massively improve the chances of survival. The defibrillator is now registered with Lucky2bhere, who in turn have entered it onto a database which will be accessible via an app on our trained employees phones or hand held devices. This means any of us happen to be somewhere and a person has had a heart attack (and isn’t breathing), they can simply open their app, click a couple of screens and it directs them to the nearest defibrillator.
I understand that at some point in the future, it is planned for the Scottish Ambulance Service to access the database so if you were to call 999 to ask for an ambulance where the person is not breathing, on finding out it is a suspected heart attack, they could tell you where the nearest defibrillator is.
Lucky2bhere is a charity run by Ross Cowie. GND have made a donation to Lucky2bhere when obtaining the defibrillator and are looking to pay for at least one to be fitted to somewhere else in a remote district or school. Please click on this link [www.lucky2bhere.org] to so see what they are doing and what they are looking to achieve.
