We are delighted to be able to report that the defibrillator, kindly provided last year by the British Heart Foundation and funded by the Department of Health, went “live” earlier this evening (Wednesday 9th May 2018), having been mounted alongside the front door of the Solstice Rest. The defibrillator is overlooked by several houses and can be seen by every vehicle leaving the village via Church Street; a good location for a device that will be in an unlocked box. Some villagers have expressed surprise at this, but South West Ambulance Service Founsation Trust (SWASFT) make the following point:
“Storage of defibrillators should not add barriers to access. Locks and coded storage are not supported by the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust as these can delay access. The rescuer will already be in a heightened distressed condition and may forget a code; may not correctly type in a code; or may not be able to find a key to gain access”
The defibrillator is also easily visible from the A303, in a very obvious location to which passers-by can easily be guided by SWASFT and other first responders.
Cllr Tom de Jonge doing the honours by switching on the defibrillator for the first time!
Although the defibrillator is intended for use without any instructions – it tells you what to do – we suspect that some villagers may be a little uneasy with this concept. You can get a copy of the Quick Reference Guide online from here. If you don’t have internet access, but would like a copy to keep at home, then please contact the Clerk using the details at the bottom of this post, or speak to any of the Parish Councillors.
If you want to know more about CPR (if you know what you are doing, you can maximise someones chance of survival – even with an automatic defibrillator to hand) the Clerk has a number of CD/DVDs carrying CPR instruction information. He even has Resusci-Annie dolls available, should anyone want to practise their CPR techniques. Please contact him if you want to have one. The more people who wish to receive training in CPR, the better and we will be organising a more formal training session for those of you who would like to participate. Watch this space for further details.
Finally, the Parish Council would like to thank the tenants and owner of the Solstice Rest for allowing the defibrillator to be mounted on the pub wall and for letting us to tap into the power supply.
Clerk to the Parish Council