Eileen Maguire, Sinead Gormley and Brigid McCauley from McAleer’s Spar in Irvinestown with the new defibrillator located on site RMG10
THREE months of fundraising within the local community looks set to save local lives as two new public-access defibrillators have been installed outside SPAR stores in Fermanagh.
The life-saving devices have been installed at McAleer’s SPAR Drumharvey on Dromore Road in Irvinestown and Holder’s SPAR Letterbreen on the Sligo Road in Enniskillen.
This is the first wave of 12 devices that will be installed in the area during this year.
Each store raised £1,500 with the help of the community as part of the Henderson Group’s Heart of our Community campaign, which aims to educate the public on the importance of CPR and early defibrillation and install over 300 defibrillators across towns in Northern Ireland.
The defibrillators are situated on the outside of the stores and are therefore accessible 24/7 for members of the public to use, should the need arise.
If a member of the public witnesses somebody who takes a cardiac arrest, which means that their heart has stopped beating and they are not breathing, it is essential that they phone 999 immediately and begin CPR compressions, while calling for a member of the public to fetch a defibrillator if one is in the area.
The defibrillators that have been installed in the area are automatic, so no training is required for use. As soon as one is activated, the user will be talked through the process by the machine and the Ambulance Service operator on the phone.
The campaign was launched last October with the full backing of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) and Dr Michael McBride, Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer. The initiative complements the Community Resuscitation Strategy the department launched in 2014, aimed at improving the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by promoting lifesaving skills to the public.
Henderson Group also developed a dedicated website, www.heartofourcommunityni.com, which houses information about the campaign, life-saving information, and lists the stores taking part in the initiative.
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