Device to cut heart attack deaths

AT least a quarter of people who die from heart attacks in Ireland every day could be saved, if communities had emergency response teams trained to use a simple device that kick-starts the heart.

Every day about 16 people die from sudden cardiac arrest, which often happens without warning and can affect anyone, even teenagers.

Dr Joseph Galvin, a consultant cardiologist at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Dublin, said that the survival rate for cardiac arrest, at about 1%, was appalling.