Monday 5th January 2015 – 3.30pm – Chris Kowalik.
A Shropshire care provider has taken delivery of lifesaving machines that can restart a person’s heart following a cardiac arrest.
Coverage Care is installing 13 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) at its homes for older people in Telford, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Wellington, Wem, Whitchurch, Bishops Castle and Market Drayton.
The machines, donated by West Midlands Ambulance Service, will be able to be used within the homes but the AEDs will be available for use by members of the public in an emergency.
There are an estimated 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year. The chance of a person surviving a cardiac arrest falls by 10 per cent for every minute that passes without an AED being used.
Survival rates can be as high as 75 per cent when patients are treated with the right care and a defibrillator in time.
The homes where the machines are being installed are: Barclay Gardens and Lightmoor View in Telford; Briarfields, Coton Hill House and Crowmoor House in Shrewsbury; New Fairholme, Oswestry; Farcroft, Wellington; Greenfields, Whitchurch; Innage Grange, Bridgnorth; Stone House, Bishops Castle; The Cottage Christian Nursing Home, Newport; Westlands, Wem; and Woodcroft in Market Drayton.
The ambulance service is also training around 90 Coverage Care staff in how to use the AEDS, although anyone can use a machine in a life or death situation as the machines give step-by-step instructions.
Coverage Care Operations Director Bev Aldridge said: “We are indebted to the West Midlands Ambulance Service for its generous donation of 13 AEDs.
“A cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, at any time, so having the AEDs in place will make our homes, and the community around them, a safer place to be.”
Cliff Medlicott, West Midlands Ambulance Service Community Response Manager, said: “With a cardiac arrest, it is vital that a patient receives the correct treatment as soon as possible.
“The minutes before an ambulance arrives are vital in helping a person survive a cardiac arrest and we are delighted to be working with Coverage Care to make more AEDs available to the Shropshire public.”
Pictured: Daniel Evans, Assistant Manager at Coton Hill House and Dawn Bush from West Midlands Ambulance Service.