The RSPG (Roseland Surgeries Patients Group) has joined forces with Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, (CFRS) at St Mawes to purchase defibrillator units for the parishes of the Roseland and to offer Heartstart Training Courses to local residents.
The age profile of the Roseland resident is skewed towards the older person who is more likely – though not exclusively – to suffer a heart attack or cardiac arrest.
The Roseland would need 15 units to cover all Parishes. They come with a stainless steel box and a keypad coded lock. They are intended to be put in prominent positions throughout the villages. If someone needs to use a unit, when they dial 999 for help, they will also be given the code to open the nearest box and its location.
Each unit costs £1500 and the RSPG will be raising funds to buy them whilst also asking for local donations. If you’d like to contribute to the cause there is a bank account at Barclays, St Mawes in the name of RSPG into which donations can be paid.
Using the unit is simple – it has a voice that tells you exactly what to do – once you attach the pads to the casualty the unit tells you whether to shock the person or not. This intervention is about buying time for the casualty until professional help arrives.
If defibrillation is given within three minutes of a heart attack then damage is minimal, every minute of delay beyond that, the person’s chance of survival decreases by ten per cent and the quality of life they can expect after that attack also diminishes.
Today in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, one hundred and sixty five people will suffer an attack but only seven of them may be alive tomorrow. If an ambulance leaves Treliske in the summer traffic, it can take 45 minutes to an hour to reach some parts of the parish. Whilst there are First Responders based more locally, not all of them carry defibrillator units.
Seventy per cent of heart attacks occur in the home so that is why we, the RSPG & CFRS personnel, want to get the units and deliver the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart training to as many people as possible and will give our time, free of charge, to make this happen. Anyone aged from 10 upwards can be trained in the Heartstart programme that also covers bleeding and choking.
For more information or to get involved, email Simone Kennett under: simonekennett@me.com
Would like to be trained in this.
Hello Shirley
I have just organised the first 2 training sessions for Gerrans Parishioners- 19th and 26th June in the Memorial Hall at 7:00 pm. Please give me a ring if you want to come. 580282 Other Parish training sessions will happen and be publicised locally if you don’t happen to qualify for this one.
Hi Simone!
Ruan Lanihorne parishioners are very interested to receive training and could help to raise funds for this worthwhile project. As you know, we were unsuccessful in our application to the British Heart Foundation for an AED. Sign me up please.
I would be glad to get trained up too.
This is great news. Yes please to the training course, and I will do a coffee morning or something to raise some funds.
Where do I sign up? Put my name down for training please :-)
Hi Will
I have just organised the first 2 training sessions for Gerrans Parishioners- 19th and 26th June in the Memorial Hall at 7:00 pm. Please give me a ring if you want to come. 580282