YOUNG BOY’S TWO-HOUR WAIT FOR AMBULANCE INSPIRES COMMUNITY TO SET UP CFR GROUP
TRAINING is underway on a new potentially life-saving initiative in Oulart. A new Community First Responders (CFR) group has seen a total of 27 people from the local area trained to link in with the Ambulance service to respond to emergency calls in the area and lend a hand, mostly focusing on incidents such as cardiac arrests, strokes and choking.
The idea behind the initiative came following a long wait for an ambulance during the summer last year. Vickie Dunne was left waiting for two hours for an ambulance to take her young son Conor to hospital after he suffered a bad fall and was slipping in and out of consciousness.
‘Luckily we were trained in first aid at home,’ she said. ‘We knew exactly what to do and Conor is fine now. I kept thinking afterwards though that other parents might not know what to do and could easily panic while waiting for an ambulance. That was the reason behind setting up the group.’
Vickie then put the feelers out in the local community and realised that there was great interest in setting up a group. Monageer CFR group provided great help in getting set up and each member of the group received training from Fergal Gallagher of the National Ambulance Service.
‘Basically, we link in with the ambulance service now and if we’re needed, we’ll get a text out with the details and an eircode,’ explained Vickie. ‘For that reason, it’s very important to know your eircode.’