Lifesaving equipment for schools
A TEACHER who had a coronary at Bayfield High School last year is part of a chain of events which has inspired the Balmacewen Lions Club to buy defibrillators for all the secondary schools in Dunedin and Milton which did not already have one.
The teacher, who declined to comment, made a full recovery. But staff told the club, if the situation had been more serious, a defibrillator might have meant the difference between life and death.
Principal Judith Forbes said the school began raising funds for a defibrillator, to be kept on site, and the Balmacewen Lions Club chipped in with financial support.
Club president Brian Tegg said the Bayfield incident coincided with a visit by a Lions Club member from Burgess Hill, in the United Kingdom. That club had initiated a project providing defibrillators to schools in the Sussex area.
Mr Tegg said the Balmacewen club was inspired by the project and had been raising funds in the hope of providing eight defibrillators (worth $3100 each) to secondary schools in Dunedin and Milton, by September.
As well as Bayfield High School, they would be given to John McGlashan College, Kaikorai Valley College, Logan Park High School, Queen’s High School, St Hilda’s Collegiate School, Taieri College and Tokomairiro High School, in Milton.
St John would provide school staff with training in CPR and how to use the equipment.
Mr Tegg said that the club had support from The Foodstuffs South Island Community Trust and from the Otago Community Trust.