Free training to use Westbury’s new lifesaving defibrillators

FREE training will be available to the Westbury community in October to learn how to use the new public lifesaving defibrillators that are soon to be installed across the town.

Earlier this month it was announced that the town council and area board had successful raised £10,000 to install four public defibrillators – devices that restart someone’s heart if they are in cardiac arrest – that will be available 24-hours a day.

In addition to the four new defibrillators, the team revealed that they had purchased a cabinet for the defibrillator located at Leigh Park Community Centre so it can be moved outside the centre and made available when the centre is closed.

To support the introduction of the defibrillators, free training will be provided at the Laverton in October.

The sessions will be hosted by Clive Setter from HeartSafe, the national company which is installing the defibrillators.

“The session will cover how to give good quality CPR and how to use the HeartSine 500P defibrillator,” said Clive.

“This type of defibrillator not only delivers a lifesaving shock if needed, it provides real-time visual and verbal feedback to the person giving CPR, telling them if they need to push faster, slower, harder or if they are giving good compressions.

“These defibrillators are easy to use. These sessions are designed to raise awareness of what good quality CPR is, and how to use the machines using mannequins.”

Defibrillators can save people’s lives if they have a heart attack. If used in the first four minutes, defibrillators can give victims an 80% chance of survival – 16 times higher than CPR alone. However, the survival rate drops by 14% for every additional minute, so the quicker one can be brought to the patient, the more effective it is.

Training will take place at the Laverton on:

Saturday 14th October at 10am to 11.30am and 11.30am to 1pm.

Tuesday October 24th at 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

To sign up for the training session contact the Laverton marketing and development officer Lilly Bale at: l.bale@ westburytowncouncil. gov.uk