This article is from page 4 of the 2012-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
FROM this week on, the people of the Kilrush area have a second lifesaving telephone number to remember, especially in cases of cardiac arrest and sudden collapse.
After a Good Samaritan dials 999 or 112 for the emergency services, they can then dial 099 31 112 to get in touch with the newly formed Com- munity Responder Group.
The Community Responders have been trained by the group’s chairperson, Ian Lynch, to save lives. They can perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and operate an automatic external defibrillator (AED) on the patient while they wait for an ambulance to reach the scene.
Mr Lynch is an Irish Heart Foundation (IHA) and Pre Hospital Emergen- cy Care Council (PHECC)-approved instructor and has trained more than 60 people in the Kilrush area.
“With 70 per cent of cardiac arrests occurring outside of hospital, the response of the local Community Responder Group is crucial as they can get to the patient very quickly and can, therefore, increase the patient’s chances of survival,” he said.
“All members of the group are vol- unteers, so we needed a system of alerting members to an incident that would allow the maximum number of members to be on call at any one time. The use of a VoIP ‘virtual number’ is the key to the responder service. The system can ring up to 1,000 numbers all at once. When a person calls the group on 099 31 112, the system rings all our phones. When answered by the trained responder, they hear a message to tell them this is a call from the Kilrush PAD group which gives them the opportunity to answer if they are in the area or not to answer if they aren’t in a position to assist. This allows the group to have all members on call 24-7-365, ensuring maximum chances of a responder being able to attend the situation and increasing the chances of survival.”
A non-profit organisation, the group has received donations and support from the local community and businesses and organisations such as Kilrush Town Council, ESB Moneypoint, Munster Group, Kilrush Credit Union, and the Bolton Family. Information leaflets, stickers and fridge magnets about the Kilrush Cardiac Responder group will be sent to each home in the area and posters will be put up in businesses throughout the town in the coming weeks.