Defibrillators

Restart a Heart

The availability of defibrillators can help to save lives.

A defibrillator is a device used to give an electric shock to help restart a patient’s heart when they are in cardiac arrest. When someone suffers a cardiac arrest the heart stops and blood is no longer being pumped around their body. The longer they go without emergency life-support, the harder it is to restart their heart. This is where you and your community, organisation or business could make a difference.

If there were more public access defibrillators, more people could get a life-saving shock as quickly as possible, ahead of an ambulance, which would assist in giving them the best possible chance of survival.

More than 3,600 people are resuscitated by ambulance staff every year in the South West because they suffer a pre-hospital cardiac arrest. For every minute that passes once in cardiac arrest, a person loses a further 10% chance of survival, and with this dramatic loss in chance of survival, there is a need of a defibrillator every 4-5 minutes walk. Without doubt this availability would improve cardiac arrest survival rates throughout the South West.

Automatic or semi-automatic defibrillators are easy and safe to use by anyone with little or no training. The device talks and displays what you need to do, with many devices also showing pictures.