Volunteer group sets up lifesaving system

THE loss of life through heart attacks and the fact that no ambulance is based in a Co Cork community has prompted a voluntary group to setup a unique lifesaving programme.

The group, called Great Island Trust First Responders, has been equipped with five defibrillators and has trained 32 people to use them in the greater Cobh area, which has a population of 15,000.

They have just started a rota on-call system with three of the defibrillators, and two local cab companies have agreed to keep two of the machines themselves and transport them free to any emergency situation.

Karl Conneely, the group’s acting secretary, said that as there was no ambulance based in Cobh it was considered extremely important that such a service was set up, especially as time is vital in saving lives.

“It takes up to 18 minutes for an ambulance to travel from Midleton to Cobh and if that ambulance is tied up we have to rely on one coming from Cork City, which can take 35 minutes,” Mr Conneely said.

Some ambulances coming from outside the area didn’t know it well and sometimes requested that the ill person’s family take them tothe local community hospital where they would meet up.

Mr Conneely said that in the past some people had lost their lives through heart attacks because help didn’t arrive quickly enough. However, he hopes that will be a thing of the past.

The project was first mooted 14 months ago by a nurse Ann Marie Hurley and local GP Dr Harry Kelleher. They formed a committee which then went on the fundraising path.

“Pfizers generously agreed to sponsor one defibrillator, so did Fleming Construction and Cobh Credit Union. Local man Don Quinn then gave us two more. Each of the machines costs about €2,500. We then held fundraising nights to buy special mannequins to practice on. We had to buy three, one adult size, one child and one baby size. They each cost around €1,000,” he said. “The group has also trained 72 people in the use of CPR.”

The 32 cardiac first responders, who are trained to use the defibrillators, started the rota system of cover last Friday. They are on call from 7pm to 7am on weekdays and 24-hour on weekends and Bank Holidays.

Mr Conneely said that if a call is made to the emergency services about a suspected heart attack in the area, ambulance control will immediately contact the group who are likely to arrive at the scene far quicker, thus offering the patient a much greater chance of recovery.