THE SUNDAY STAR-TIMES SAYS:
Too often, it takes a tragedy before the community acts.
Beancounters must pay for defibrillators in public places
At Onehunga War Memorial Pool on a Monday, the learners’ pool is a maelstrom of jumping, dancing, diving kids. Farther down, it’s split into lanes, where our neighbourhood children are taught to swim by endlessly patient instructors.
Around the side of the pool, parents chat and check their cellphones; in red and yellow uniforms, the YMCA lifeguards are quietly watchful.
The only time I’ve ever had to ask them for help was when one of my sons cut his knee; all it took was a gently administered sticking plaster, and he was back in the pool with a splash.
Stories like today’s, of fitness instructor Annie Tausi’s brush with death, remind us how important these lifeguards are. I often see Eleanor Mulrennan and Michaela Housiaux-Andrews patrolling, urging running kids to slow down. But they came into their own when they used their training and a poolside debrillator to restart Annie’s heart.
This month, we reported on Professor Harvey White’s campaign to make automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available wherever there are lots of people.
‘‘We need them on maraes, all schools, golf clubs, doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries; we need them at gyms, churches, shopping malls,’’ he says. ‘‘Every major building including apartment buildings should have one.’’
White, the director of the Greenlane cardiovascular service coronary care unit, reckons this country needs 10,000 AEDs – more than twice the present count of 4500. He sees, on a daily basis, what happens to people when there’s not one in the vicinity.
There were 1275 deaths from cardiac arrest in the year to April – four times more than the number of people who died on the roads. That number would be worse still, but for the lives saved by AEDs.
Take 54-year-old Geoff Brogan, playing football at Auckland’s Seddon Fields when he dropped to the ground. ‘‘I was running for a pass, and then the light changed – a bit like an eclipse.’’
Or Geraldine High School deputy principal Jo Nicolson, who suffered a cardiac arrest on her way to a Monday meeting at school. Or Warriors doctor John Mayhew, whose heart gave out in the gym.
In each case, there was an AED to hand. And it doesn’t require a trained person to use one.
The challenge is, most of these AEDs were provided through local fundraising or sponsors. There is little public funding available for the $1500 devices.
Community fundraising can and should be part of the solution. But it’s time district health boards and councils also came to the pool party.