A question was raised by a resident about where defibrillators were located in the Ravenswood area. Me being the curious person I am, began to research numbers and I was faced with very limited information on where they are located. I did however, discover the shocking statistics on how crucial AEDs are.
According to the British Heart Foundation, there are approximately 60,000 cases of sudden cardiac arrest in the UK per year. Sadly, only a small proportion of people survive. A major factor for the low survival rate is the limited access to a defibrillator in time, ideally within the first few minutes and with each minute that goes by the chances of survival are reduced by 7-10%.
Soon after the initial question was raised, at the beginning of April, tragically a resident experienced a Sudden Cardiac Arrest and passed away. As ever with this community we all wanted to make sure we are not left without the right equipment should we need to act in the future and began to look into how we can get a 24 hour AED on the development. Having already done a little bit of investigation into this I asked to take the lead and was able to co-ordinate the various parties to achieve the objective. The money for the unit was provided by Eastravel Limited who by making such a generous donation made this task possible. I discovered a local charity Heart2Heart who have already supplied 2 defibrillators in Ipswich town center and touched base with them. They offered me all the support and advice needed and were able to order the defibrillator for us. Finally it was the location we needed to secure and was the most time consuming part. I received a few knock backs but persevered and approached the Ravenswood McDonalds who had only recently extended their opening hours so they are open 24 hours. The McDonalds management were on board immediately and after a meeting to thrash out the finer details, they agreed to not only house the machine but to cover it on their insurance and replace the battery and pads every 4 years. The Ravenswood Residents Association also offered some words of wisdom and support to make sure this task was successful. They managed to secure another location, being that of the Co-op and so we were in a great position to choose where best to house this defibrillator.
This lifesaving piece of equipment has now been installed and registered and I am now working on arranging CPR and defibrillator training for the residents. This will empower the community to have the confidence to help neighbour in need and use the defibrillator should a future Sudden Cardiac Arrest take place on the development.
My responsibilities will not end here now that this has been installed. I will be the point of contact if there are any issues and I will check on the machine once a week/once a fortnight to make sure it’s still working. This responsibility I will take on for as long as I live in the area.
This was a massive win for the community and I look forward to the next project to better the area I live in.
Article written by Sam Murray, Priory Heath Resident and Conservative Activist.