Woodfield plantation defibrillator

After a recent discussion with a few other locals I realised that we need our own defibrillator on the estate. I think the nearest one at the moment is Tesco...which is great if you're in Tesco... There's also one at the school.. this doesn't show on the defib website and is possibly only available during school hours? Again, great if you have a heart attack during school hours.

Why am I thinking about this? Basically my husband had chest pain a few days ago, so bad that I called 999. We were in Sheffield. My brother in law was sent for the nearest defibrillator. It was a new one, recently fitted on the main road. He returned with it within 5 minutes. Fortunately he was OK and didn't require it.

It got me thinking though. We live at the back of the estate so to get to Tesco by car, it takes 5 minutes, plus traffic plus getting the defib out of its place. That's 10 minutes. For those that don't know -

"If defibrillation occurs within five minutes of cardiac arrest, the person has a survival chance of 50-70%. For every minute that someone’s in cardiac arrest without receiving CPR and having a defibrillator used on them, their chance of survival decreases by 10%."

Sorry to be so morbid, but I think this is really important. As a huge estate, we have the power as a collective to easily increase the chances of survival if this happens to someone in our community. With careful consideration as to location, we can have one fitted on the actual estate that is at the heart of the estate. Honestly I'd hate to be zooming round to Tesco for a defib at 5pm for example knowing my loved one is going into cardiac arrest.. you can imagine.

So my proposal is we do some fundraising. A defibrillator with a locked cabinet is £1,320. If every home on the estate donated just £1, this would cover the cost!

Just for some further context, my dad had a heart attack 21 years ago and a defibrillator saved his life. Fortunately he made it to hospital before he went into cardiac arrest. What a wonderful piece of equipment to give someone an extra 20+ years of their life and a chance to meet their grandchildren etc!

Any remaining money can be used to maintain the defibrillator or towards other medical equipment that may be useful / become available in the near future and this will be discussed on the community group if this is the case.