LIFE SAVERS: Narooma Sporting and Services Club general manager Tony Casu with one of the defibrillators purchased for use at Club Narooma.
THE Narooma Sporting and Services Club have just purchased two defibrillator machines to help protect any of patrons who suffer heart failure.
Club general manager Tony Casu said the machines were potential life savers and he hoped the purchase would encourage other businesses and venues to get their own.
They cost only $2,600 each and it only costs about $150 every two years to maintain, he said.
The club purchased the devices from ex Ambulance Service paramedic Mark Jolly.
Defibrillators are lifesaving devices that deliver an electric charge to someone who has suffered cardiac arrest.
Previously the high tech devices were worth thousands of dollars and could only be used by specially trained paramedics, but these days they are affordable and so easy to use so anyone can save a life.
The new easy to use defibrillators speak to the operator and guide them through the defibrillation process.
The device will only deliver a shock to the patient if it detects the heart is in the appropriate rhythm.
From the moment that the device is turned on it gives audible instructions to the operator and guides them through the correct procedure for using the defibrillator.
“Studies have found that every minute without a shock from a defibrillator will decrease a casualty’s chance of survival by 10 per cent,” Mr Jolly said.
“After 10 minutes the heart will not respond to defibrillation.”
Sudden Cardiac Arrest can affect anyone; healthy adults, teenagers and children, and the only definitive treatment for cardiac arrest is defibrillation, which is most successful if administered within the first few minutes.
Access to an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) within those first minutes could dramatically increase the chances of survival, from less than five per cent to 70 per cent or more.
