Heart Foundation gift will save lives

AN £800 gift by Bexhill branch of the British Heart Foundation will play its part in helping to save lives at both Bexhill and Camber Sands.

At a ceremony on Bexhill Town Hall steps on Wednesday morning, a heart defibrillator was presented to Rother Coast Control Officer Steve Benn and Barry Freeman, from the authority's human resources department by BHF branch secretary Jacky Chrisp and committee colleagues.

Fund-raising by the BHF branch has paid half the cost of the 1,600 machine. Rother has funded the rest.

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The aim is for the defibrillator to be available at the Town Hall during the winter months and at Camber Sands in summer.

Steve Benn said the device will be an invaluable life-saver, particularly at Camber, where summer crowds produce traffic congestion which can seriously slow down ambulances responding to emergency calls.

At peak times of the year, trained Coast Control staff there can deal with 40 or more first aid emergencies in a day. In a typical year, this can include several cases of cardiac arrest.

The British Heart Foundation says that every two minutes someone in the UK suffers a heart attack.

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In many cases the heart stops completely '“ a cardiac arrest, which kills about 250 people every day before they get to hospital.

In many of these deaths need not have happened if a defibrillator had been on hand to "jump start'" the heart with an electrical charge.

Ten Rother staff have been trained in the use of defibrillator, giving the patient all-important extra minutes before medical help arrives.

Every minute that elapses after a cardiac arrest reduces the victim's chance of recovery by 10%. After eight minutes, there's virtually no chance at all of survival.

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The British Heart Foundation stresses the need for the public to know life-saving skills; giving CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to a patient before the doctor arrives gives added chances of recovery. The BHF's Heart Save programme is an initiative that teaches people of all ages what to do in a life-threatening emergency. For more information call 020 7487 7115.

Jacky Chrisp said: "The British Heart Foundation is delighted to present this equipment to Rother District Council.

"Our local fund-raising group continually raises money for heart research and patient support. It is very rewarding for them to give something back to the local community."