“Local Businesses Donate Towards Life Saving Equipment”
A retired ambulance paramedic with more than 30 years’ experience has helped launch a new charity after seeing the lifesaving difference a well-placed defibrillator can make to a cardiac arrest victim.
Together with a group of local residents, Chris Jarvie and Amanda Scurr set up the Seaton Sluice Public Access Defibrillator Support Group in 2017 with the aim to help improve the survival rates from cardiac arrest in the community by raising funds to buy, install and maintain a number of Public Access Defibrillators (PAD’s) for their village. To date, the group have raised enough funds to install five PADs in accessible locations – a care home, the community centre, a social club, a decommissioned BT phone box and a private business premises. The PAD group also monitors and maintains the two existing PADs located at the First and Middle Schools.
The PADs locations are registered with the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) who give 999 callers the release code to access the equipment. The proximity of the PADs not only benefits the people of Seaton Sluice but also the many visitors who are attracted to the village’s coastline with its footpaths and popular cycling routes.
Chris and Amanda have teamed up with Professor Michael Norton, Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle who offers expert medical advice while his charity, Cardioproof supports the group by assisting with the cost of the PAD.
Zoll Medical, Manufacturers of the PAD also helps with the charity as do local medical training provider MediPro who have provided resuscitation training manikins, training defibrillators and appropriately qualified tutors.
As Chris explains, the fact that the PADs are in situ is just part of the charity’s work.
“As well as supplying the PAD, we provide CPR and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) awareness training and help to raise awareness amongst the public about the benefits of having them in the community. To date we have trained around 40 adults and have also run a training session for 27 children in Seaton Sluice First School to show the young people how easy they are to use.
“The PADs are simple and safe to use and come with their own voiced instructions. You can’t hurt anyone with them as they won’t work if the condition of the patient doesn’t warrant their use. Our aim is to make them as common as fire extinguishers and then we will really see the number of lives being saved rise dramatically.”
Indeed, Chris has a wealth of medical expertise from his time as a registered paramedic and Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) and is very aware of the importance of early CPR and defibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
“If PADs were available in the past when I started my career, more people would have survived cardiac arrests. Our aim is to have them situated within minutes of each other so that they are ready to be used in an emergency. Time is vital in situations like this.”
Chris’s co-founder Amanda Scurr looks after the administration of the charity and she is delighted at the generosity of businesses and individuals in Seaton Sluice who have donated money towards their work.
“At first we planned on having just one PAD centrally available in the village. Thanks to local people’s kind donations we now have five with more to follow. I’d urge other villages to consider fund raising like we’ve done as lives will be saved. It’s really important to have them nearby as every minute that a person goes without treatment decreases the chance of survival by 10 percent.”
To date, very generous donations have been received from:
- Northumberland County Council,
- The Kings Arms, Seaton Sluice,
- Seaton Sluice First School,
- The Seaton Sluice Tea Dance Community Group
- The Harbour View Restaurant, Seaton Sluice,
- The Waterford Arms, Seaton Sluice,
- W. Rodgerson and Sons, Tilers in Seaton Sluice,
- The Freemasons of Northumberland,
- Private donation, local resident,
- Seaton Valley Local Parish Council,
- The Rotary Club of Blyth,