WAKEFIELD has its first life-saving defibrillator available to the public 24 hours every day - thanks to Wakefield Rotary Club who have teamed up with Tesco Express and Yorkshire Ambulance Service to provide a defibrillator on an outside wa...ll of the Tesco premises at Busy Corner on Barnsley Road. The £1,872 cost of the machine and its high-security installation has been met by the club.
The project has been the brainchild of joint community service chairman Neale Clark, who said: "It's those golden moments immediately after someone suffers a heart attack that are so important."
Neale explained that anyone can get a person suffering a cardiac arrest immediate life-saving treatment simply by ringing 999. When they do this they will be told that a defibrillator is available at Tesco Express and the emergency services will tell them how to use it. They will
be given a code number so that they can open the safe and take the defibrillator to the patient.
A defibrillator is a piece of medical equipment designed to give a controlled electric shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat after a cardiac arrest. If it can be attached to a patient within the first two or three minutes, then their chances of survival are around 85 per cent but every minute of delay will cost about 7-10 per cent of that chance.
Dave Jones, Community Defibrillation Officer at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: "For those who might be worried about using a defibrillator, there is no risk of causing any further harm to a patient because the defibrillator is designed to recognise only certain shockable heart rhythms. Therefore, if it doesn't detect a shockable rhythm it won't allow the shock to be delivered."
The Rotary club, together with the ambulance service, will arrange training for anyone from the Busy Corner community shops - or any other local residents - who would like to take part in this initiative. For further information call Neale on 01924 253975 or for general information on defibrillators contact Dave Jones on 07917 053604 or email Dave.Jones@yas.nhs.uk
The project has been the brainchild of joint community service chairman Neale Clark, who said: "It's those golden moments immediately after someone suffers a heart attack that are so important."
Neale explained that anyone can get a person suffering a cardiac arrest immediate life-saving treatment simply by ringing 999. When they do this they will be told that a defibrillator is available at Tesco Express and the emergency services will tell them how to use it. They will
be given a code number so that they can open the safe and take the defibrillator to the patient. A defibrillator is a piece of medical equipment designed to give a controlled electric shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat after a cardiac arrest. If it can be attached to a patient within the first two or three minutes, then their chances of survival are around 85 per cent but every minute of delay will cost about 7-10 per cent of that chance.
Dave Jones, Community Defibrillation Officer at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: "For those who might be worried about using a defibrillator, there is no risk of causing any further harm to a patient because the defibrillator is designed to recognise only certain shockable heart rhythms. Therefore, if it doesn't detect a shockable rhythm it won't allow the shock to be delivered."
The Rotary club, together with the ambulance service, will arrange training for anyone from the Busy Corner community shops - or any other local residents - who would like to take part in this initiative. For further information call Neale on 01924 253975 or for general information on defibrillators contact Dave Jones on 07917 053604 or email Dave.Jones@yas.nhs.uk
