The Chorleywood Public Access Defibrillator Scheme (CPADS) is a project to place public access defibrillators around the village and educate the community in their use.
A defibrillator is used following a cardiac arrest (when the heart stops beating) to deliver an electrical current through the chest in an attempt to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm allowing it to pump again.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) happens between 140,000 and 200,000 times a year in the UK, making it one of the UK’s largest killers. It can affect people of any age and without warning. Middle-aged and older people are at greatest risk, but younger people, including athletes and elite sports people, suffer from SCAs.
The potential for saving a life is dependent on time; the faster medical help is administered, the better the chance of survival. Following a Cardiac Arrest, the chance of survival decreases by 23% per minute. To achieve a positive outcome, medical assistance must be given within 4 to 5 minutes of the event. Statistics suggest that the survival rate after a SCA with CPR alone is 5%.
By using a defibrillator, the survival rate increases to 50%.
The UK Resuscitation Council suggests an AED should be available wherever medical treatment is more than 5 minutes away, and then local initiatives are essential. Access to an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED), can make the difference between life and death. They can be used without training and CANNOT DO ANY HARM.
Chorleywood’s first 24 hour public access defibrillator is now in place in the Village on the front of John Roberts Estate Agent (diagonally opposite the Co-Op). Kindly donated by Chorleywood Care.