Sunderland school donates defibrillator to help save lives in the local community

Sunderland Echo

Sandhill View Academy has donated a defibrillator for the community to use.

Transcript

00:00Okay, Mrs Dodd, why did you decide to install the defibrillator for the whole community

00:04of Euston?

00:05Well, earlier in the year a member of the public came in and used the defibrillator

00:09to borrow our defibrillator for an emergency and that kind of triggered a thought as to

00:14what if it happened outside of the school hours when the school building was shut?

00:19And I would hate to think that there was an emergency where a member of the public needed

00:23a defibrillator and couldn't get access to ours because the building was shut.

00:28So I contacted Sergio at Red Sky and I said, look, we've got a defibrillator here that

00:33we'd like to donate to the community, how would we go about fundraising for the casing?

00:39And Red Sky Foundation said that they would donate the casing to allow this to be put

00:43up fairly swiftly so that the public could use it.

00:48And Charlie and Lucy, why do you think it's so important this piece of equipment is made

00:51accessible for the whole community to use?

00:53I think it's important because it's life-saving machinery which anyone can use because it's here.

00:58And yourself, Lucy?

00:59I think it's important because it's such a big residential area and people might not

01:05know where there is one, but this one's here and anyone can come and get it and it's accessible.

01:12Okay, and Sergio, obviously this defibrillator has been donated to the community by the school.

01:16Just how important is it that we have community accessible defibrillators that people can use?

01:21I think it's really important because ultimately time is so crucial when it comes to somebody

01:25in cardiac arrest.

01:27The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest is one in ten and every chance of surviving drops

01:33by 10% for every minute that passes.

01:35So it's crucial that everybody in the community has full access to a defibrillator in their

01:40local proximity.

01:41It's our goal at Red Sky Foundation to try and get a defibrillator every 500 metres apart.

01:48It's going to be a thankless task and probably something that I'll never be able to achieve,

01:52certainly in the next few years at least.

01:55It's a long-term progress of what we're trying to deliver.

01:59What we are wanting people to do is to visit the Red Sky Foundation website and learn how

02:04to do CPR and also learn how to use a defibrillator.

02:08It's a free 15-minute training video which we've collaborated with the North East Ambulance

02:12Service and we've also collaborated with the school here, Sandhill View, and Mrs Dodd

02:18on the basis that they had a defibrillator sitting in school and we provided the cabinet

02:23to bring it outside so it's available for the wider community to access in a medical

02:27emergency.

02:28And if you do find yourself in a medical emergency situation and need to access a defibrillator,

02:32what should you do?

02:34If you do need to access a defibrillator in a medical emergency, simply follow the chain

02:38of survival which is called 999 straight away and call for help and try and get some

02:42help around you.

02:44You begin CPR on that person and then you'd also have the person that's come to help you

02:49to retrieve the defibrillator.

02:51They would come back and they would apply the pads which is very, very simple to do.

02:55The defibrillator tells you everything.

02:56As soon as you turn that on, it instructs you on what to do, how to remove the clothing,

03:01where to put the pads, and obviously just to sit back and wait for it to analyse the

03:05heart rhythm.

03:06And what it's looking for is a regular heart rhythm, something that isn't out of sync and

03:11it's not in a normal sinus rhythm.

03:13And as soon as that's picked up, it'll be delivering the shock on behalf of the patient

03:18and then you can begin the CPR again.

03:20And while this process is going on, remember you've called 999.

03:24They'll stay on the phone with you but most importantly, the ambulance is on its way as

03:28well so hopefully, hopefully by the time you even get to this cabinet, the ambulance has

03:33arrived at the property or the house where the person has gone into a medical emergency.

03:38It literally can be the difference between life and death?

03:41It really, really can.

03:42The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest out of hospital is only 1 in 10.

03:46In fact, it's so much so that the chance of surviving a cardiac arrest is so, so low without

03:52defibrillation.

03:53The chance of surviving is 7% without CPR using a defibrillator.

03:58It goes up to over 75% if you're using a defibrillator as well.

04:02And let's not forget, a cardiac arrest is all to do with the electrical signals inside

04:07of the heart rather than the blockages which will cause a heart attack.

04:11There is a difference.

04:12Cardiac arrest is the medical emergency where people need urgent CPR to rotate and to circulate

04:20that oxygenated blood around the body and most importantly to keep it going to the brain.

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