Public Access Defibrillators Information.

Collection for a Public Access Defibrilator.

The money collected over the August Bank Holiday will be put towards the purchase of a Public Access (cardiac) Defibrillator (PAD),which costs £1,579. It is planned that it will be placed at a suitable location on the harbour front in St Ives.
A PAD can be operated by anyone with a simple knowledge of first aid & is normally located on the outside of a building so that it is available 24 hours/day. Following the collapse of a person which may be due to a cardiac arrest, bystander(s) dial 999 in the normal way. The ambulance control will normally arrange dispatch of an ambulance & also give the precise location of the nearest PAD together with the access code for the keypad to gain entry to the defibrillator, which is housed in a polycarbonate vandal proof case.
The defibrillator can be taken immediately to the casualty & treatment given following the precise verbal instructions from the machine, as appropriate, prior to the arrival of an ambulance. Time is of the essence if the heart is to be restarted.

4 PADs are currently located in St Ives at:
The Co-op, Tregenna Place.
St. Ives Ayr Holiday Park.
St. Ives Bowling Club, The Belyars.
St. Ives Junior School.
Two more are shortly to be installed, one outside the Stennack Surgery & the other outside Edward Hain Hospital. Apart from the one now being planned for the harbour front it is hoped that monies can be raised to serve other key areas in the town.

The major PAD initiative in Cornwall is a result of the Ronnie Richards Memorial Charity (RRMC). Ronnie Richards was a Penzance man who sadly died from a cardiac arrest whilst playing indoor 5-a-side football at the Penzance leisure centre at which, at the time, no defibrillator was available. His family set up the charity as a memorial to him at a time when there were no PADs in Cornwall. Due to their efforts there are now more than a 100 located throughout Cornwall including 17 in Penzance with plans to double this number in the County over the next year or two. Lives have already been saved.
They are also pursuing a very active training programme in the use of defibrillators & cardiopulmonary resuscitation & so far, apart from adults, over 2,500 students & schoolchildren in West Cornwall have received training. Much more information on the RRMC is available on the internet. It is planned to make such training available to residents of St Ives in the near future.