This article is from page 52 of the 2010-01-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 52 JPG
THE coming year will see renewed efforts in Mountshannon to provide a second defibrillator for the village.
Already the community has man- aged to secure one life-saving device and this is now installed in its special security case on the wall of the pot- tery shop.
“We’d certainly like to get a sec- ond defibrillator and we’ll be work- ing towards that this year.’ said Jane Murray, one of the organisers of the committee effort which secured the
first defibrillator.
Twenty people are now fully trained in the use of the machine which could make the difference between recovery and a tragedy if someone experiences coronary problems.
The teams are on a rota which turns over every couple of weeks, with the emergegency phone (086-320997) being given to the person on duty.
Jane said the community is very pleased to have the defibrillator and to have a secure location for it.
But locals have proved so willing to train and do their part in protecting
lives that there could well be enough volunteers to warrant a second ma- chine. This could be kept at a dif- ferent location, making help close to hand wherever it is needed in the village.
Without any grants available, the community will be back on the fun- draising trail this coming year. “We will have to raise the money locally but people here are very genrous when it comes to something impor- tant,’ said Jane.
6,000 people a year die from sud- den cardiac death in Ireland. Two per
week will be under the age of thirty five.
The defibrillator provides a vi- tal link in the chain of survival as speedy combination of CPR and the defibrillator can often restore life which would otherwise be lost.
Statistically in Ireland, anyone whose heart stops has just a one in one hundred chance of surviv- ing. But if there is a cardiac first responder program in place involv- ing trained people using a defibril- lator, those odds are significantly INNO KeranNel ew