Red Cross Blogs

Defibrillators: a shockingly good idea

By Mark Cox
December 13, 2010 at 9:30 am

If you were a fan of the American hospital-based drama ER, you’re possibly labouring under the misapprehension that defibrillator-use is very common. Broadly every five minutes or so during the series, someone would shout ‘Defibs! Now!’ then blast a few hundred volts into an ailing casualty.

But remember, this was also a world in which doctors routinely looked like George Clooney and not the gangly, not-enough-sunlight-looking specimen who always seems to be on duty when you visit the wards.

Still, it certainly is true that defibrillators can play an absolutely critical role in saving lives when people suffer a cardiac arrest. In fact, if used within two to three minutes, they can increase the chances of survival by 70 per cent. I’ve been fortunate enough to cover quite a few stories where they have literally made a life-saving difference – just check out these nuggets featuring our volunteers Jim and Pete, and Alan and Mariusz.

And that’s why we’re so chuffed that Land Rover, who very generously donated 30 emergency response vehicles to the Red Cross two years ago, has just given us 30 defibrillators to go with them.

The fab, all-terrain Land Rovers are invaluable in helping our volunteers reach casualties in hard-to-reach areas and during bad weather. (For example, they were helping out, non-stop, all over the place during the recent snowstorms.) Adding defibrillators to the package is the perfect icing on the emergency response cake.

I have no doubt that, before too long, one of these gizmos will be used by our trained volunteers during a real emergency to actually save somebody’s life. And no matter how you view it, that’s shockingly impressive.

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Tags: Emergencies, emergency response, First aid, first aid tips, volunteer, volunteers

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under Emergencies, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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