Life saving equipment in district libraries

14 October 2013
A partners' chance encounter with death has prompted the installation of life saving equipment in Cambridge and Te Awamutu libraries.

Waipa District Council librarian, Margaret Langdon said four years ago her partner had a cardiac arrest in his parked car in Hamilton city.

It was only thanks to some quick thinking and people trained in CPR that he's alive today, she said.

A former nurse drove past his car, saw him slumped over the steering wheel and stopped to assist. Then two Sacred Heart students trained in CPR and a former army officer waded in to help. Between them they kept him alive until the ambulance arrived with a defibrillator.

It was an amazing sequence of events that saved his life. It got me thinking about what I could do to help save someone's life and that's when the idea to put defibrillators in our libraries came about, she said.

Automated External Defibrillators (AED) were recently installed in both Te Awamutu and Cambridge libraries. When someone has a cardiac arrest the AED delivers a short, powerful electric shock to the heart, helping it to regain its natural rhythm.

More than 1000 New Zealanders each year suffer a cardiac arrest or heart attack outside of hospital and many have no prior symptoms. Less than 5-8 per cent will survive if they don't receive immediate treatment. A defibrillator can increase the chance of survival by up to 40 per cent.

District librarian Alison Gordon said libraries were ideal places to locate such devices as in the past year more than 200,000 visits had been made to both libraries.

St John have trained staff to use the equipment so there are people on-site should an emergency happen, she said.

There are also defibrillators at the Council's Te Awamutu head office and at the Don Rowlands Centre at Karapiro.

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For more information please contact

Jeanette Tyrrell (on behalf of Council) 027 5077 599