Lifesaver fitted at office

AN office block has become the latest place in Rochdale to fit a publiclyavailable defibrillator.

Globe House on Moss Bridge Road has fitted one of the life-saving devices on the wall outside its main entrance.

It will be accessible to the public between 3am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday.

If someone suffers a cardiac arrest in the area 999 call operators will point callers to the defibrillator, give them a code to unlock the cabinet and directions on how to use it - tripling the patient’s chance of survival.

Globe House is home to 60 organisations, ranging from small businesses to national companies and charities.

Another 17 companies are also based at nearby Globe Park Industrial Park.

Trudie Unsworth, the building manager at Globe House, said: “We are delighted to have a defibrillator on site for our colleagues, tenants and neighbours on the industrial park, along with the local community and numerous visitors we receive every day. We hope that we never encounter such an unfortunate event that we need to use it, but having the potential to save a life is fantastic.”

Training in basic CPR and defibrillation will also be offered to Globe House workers.

This defibrillator is the latest to be installed as part of the Heartsafe Award-winning Roch Defibs project; a council and North West Ambulance Service project which aims to increase cardiac arrest survival rates in the borough.

The project has already installed 32 defibrillators and trained almost 3,000 local people in CPR and defibrillation as well as helping to save the life of Allan Turner, 72, who suffered a cardiac arrest at Tunshill Golf Club in July 2016.

Coun Sameena Zaheer, assistant to the cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “I am so pleased to see yet another Roch Defib installed in our borough. Currently people living in the UK only have an 8.6 per cent chance of surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest. This just isn’t good enough, so we’re doing all we can to increase the chances of survival for people living, working and visiting our borough.

“By installing defibrillators across the borough and training people how to use them we hope that, should you ever need it, you can get the life-saving treatment you need in those vital first minutes.”