Public access defibrillators

[Ericasuncle]

Hi. Does anybody have any experience of sorting out community access to defibrillators? I am 47 and I had a heart attack in December which led to 2 stents. Time off work, recent poor weather and COVID restrictions have given me plenty of time to ruminate on what has happened and think about some positive things I can do. Although I didn’t have a cardiac arrest, it has made me realise there are no publicly available defibrillators in my area. Any advice appreciated.

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

Hello

This may help

bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help...

communityheartbeat.org.uk/n...

heartsafe.org.uk/aed-locations

[Mentdent]

I worry that people are going to spend time getting the defibrillator working instead of getting on with the chest compressions.

[JennyRx in reply to Mentdent]

In my resus training I was told the defib is the the thing that’ll really save lives. And the public ones are so easy to use.

But there’s nothing worse than having a local one with no access. Someone raised £ to purchase one and had it installed but didn’t register it. This needs to be done and also needs a guardian to check it monthly to make sure it’s in working order. As a result this one isn’t registered and the 999 call handlers have no code to unlock it. So when I sent someone to get it she couldn’t unlock it. Fortunately it wasn’t needed.

[Hatchjd]

I am the secretary of my village community council. We purchased a defibrillator for our village with help of a BHF grant. bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help... It came with a free CPR kit for teaching CPR classes and how to use the defibrillator. It requires no special skills, just stick the pads on and the machine takes over and gives instructions. It will only shock if required and tells you to stand clear. It does require a special cabinet which costs around £500 but you may find your local authority council has a website of funding available for community purposes. We approached Scottish Power who installed ours for free, it is located next to an electric cabinet substation by the train station. We chose a defibrillator the same brand as our local ambulance service as they will give us replacement pads for ours when used, they cost around £40. The first thing is always to call 999, they will tell you how to proceed and where the nearest public defibrillator is located if appropriate.

[Qualipop]

I just can't seethe point in them unless you happen to have a heart attack very close to one. What are the chances? I wonder if research has been done on how often they are used or vandalised. I can see their use maybe in a confined space like on a cruise ship or in an airport but that's about all.

[Ericasuncle]

Thanks for all your replies. I suppose a defibrillator is only of use if there is one nearby, you know where it is and you can access it when needed. Looking at my local area, none of the various online databases and websites show anything for several miles. I guess there maybe one somewhere and maybe in an emergency a 999 call would point me towards one, but I suspect that’s going to be too late to be of use. They are not shown as POIs on smartphone mapping or on the what3words app, which seems such an obvious thing to do. However the registering of the location and the maintenance of the location databases seems to be a bit of a cottage industry. I suppose my first job is to get one for my local community and work place and register them. Thanks, to those who have provided guidance.