First Aid and Defibrillators

I recently went on another First Aid course - we are obliged to be up to date with our certification. It was great fun resussitating the plastic dolls and sharing the usual horror stories.

What was most disturbing is how only 8% of people survive after being resussitated by a first aider! However, if a defibrillator is used the chances of survival increase almost ten times! In Ringwood there are 10 defibrillators, yet in Tuckton, Bournemouth, there are none! Assuming there is a defibrillator nearby - and incidentally they are dead easy to use - they talk you through what to do and if they aren't needed, they won't work - you find them locked up in a tamper-proof cabinet. You need to call 999 to get the code to open the cabinet - all a bit time-consuming, given you only have 3 minutes in which to get the thing on the poor patient. Here's the good bit though - did you know you can sign up to getting the codes and locations of the defibrillators by emailing xxx