(but promise not to raise the dead!)

IT MAY seem like too little too late, but crematoriums across the UK are installing defibrillators.

The life-saving equipment isn’t for those beyond help, but rather for mourners.

Crematorium bosses have acted after a spate of fatalities and near deaths at ceremonies due to the stress of the occasion.

Now from Bromley to Bury and up to Buckie the machines are being installed because of the rise in the number of heart attacks coupled with worries over ambulance response times in some areas.

Staff at almost 50 crematoriums operated by Dignity have been trained to use the equipment and some councils have also fitted machines.

The devices can save lives by giving a high-energy electric shock to the heart. In the past six months there have been two deaths at crematoriums. Other mourners have collapsed and been taken to hospital.

One of the most recent facilities to install a machine is Lancaster & Morecambe Crematorium. Manager Susan Newbold said: “We hope we never need to use it but if someone falls ill it’s vital that they receive help immediately.

“Every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces a person’s chance of surviving a cardiac arrest by around 10 per cent. “We will always call an ambulance, but wanted to do everything we possibly can to give immediate help.”

The British Heart Foundation, which is waging the fight against cardiovascular disease, teamed up with Dignity in January 2017. The company has also raised more than £450,000 for the charity from events at its premises.

Donna Stokes of British Heart Foundation said: “We thank Dignity for their commitment to the com

SET: Ian Bryson of Moray crematorium with a defibrillator munity and the money they have raised to fund lifesaving research that helps keep more families together.

“Defibrillators need to be available in areas of greatest risk – where crowds gather, a location where people are naturally anxious or under stress or somewhere an ambulance may take time to reach due to traffic congestion or distance. A

‘We want to give immediate help’

crematorium meets all of these requirements.”

Judy O’sullivan, the British Heart Foundation’s director of health innovation programmes, said: “There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year and, tragically, the overall survival rate is less than 10 per cent.

“The most important thing when someone has a cardiac arrest is to call 999 immediately, start CPR and, if one is nearby, use a defibrillator.

“However, most defibrillators are unused, often because people don’t know where they are.”