Defibrillator for Mugdock Country Park

Hello and Welcome

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit this page. My name is Carla and along with Gillian and Lesley, we are raising funds to purchase an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) and have it installed at Mugdock Country Park, minutes walking distance from Dumbrock Loch. Please read on so I can explain why…

 

On the 25th of July last year me and my brother Sean visited Dumbrock Loch for a swim and he suffered a cardiac arrest. Sean had gotten out of the water and began to take unwell, I shouted for help and immediately lots of people came running, Gillian and Lesley amongst them. Within minutes high quality CPR was being carried out and lucky for Sean there were qualified people on hand to help. Everyone worked as a team for around 40 minutes until the paramedics arrived with the defibrillator and they were able to shock Sean’s heart back into rhythm. Sean was in a critical condition and taken to the Intensive Care Unit at the Golden Jubilee Hospital where he spent several weeks fighting for his life. During his time in hospital, he received outstanding treatment and care. Sean pulled through the odds and survived an out of hospital cardiac arrest and was discharged from hospital on the 23rd August. He is now on his journey to healing and recovery, you could even say he is walking miracle! Sean is only 33 years old. A cardiac arrest could  happen to anyone, at any age, at any time, however early intervention CPR and defibrillation can increase a person’s chance of surviving. Sean was one of the lucky 1 in 10 to survive! By raising awareness of the importance of CPR and funds to purchase an AED, we may be able to support others in surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest. I can’t thank everyone enough who was involved in saving Sean’s life and now I would like to pay it forward, but I need your help! Please can you help us by donating what you can, it would be greatly appreciated. Please continue reading for some vital statistics…

 

From my heart to yours

Carla

 

• Every year over 3,000 people around Scotland are treated by the Ambulance Service after having a cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, only around 1 in 10 people will survive (savealifescotland.co.uk)

 

• CPR alone can double the chances of survival. When you use a defibrillator in addition to quality CPR, the odds of someone’s survival can jump from around 6% to 74% – an incredible difference. (FirstAidForLife.org.uk)

 

• Defibrillators are crucial to be able to have a chance of bringing someone back following a cardiac arrest. CPR helps circulate the blood, keeping the heart and brain sufficiently oxygenated. The AED is necessary to deliver the shock hopefully returning the heart to a viable rhythm. (Firstaidforlife.org.uk)

 

• Survival from cardiac arrest depends on a sequence of time sensitive interventions. All of these must be optimised to maximise the chance of survival:

 

(1) Early access—to activate the emergency medical services (EMS).

(2) Early basic life support (BLS) to slow the rate of deterioration of the brain and heart and buy time to enable defibrillation.

(3) Early defibrillation—to restore a perfusing rhythm.

(4) Early advanced life support (ALS) – to stabilise the patient.

(Resucustationjournal.com)