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Local pharmacy assist in medical drama

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

A LIFE-SAVING piece of equipment in a Northside pharmacy proved invaluable last week when it re-established a heartbeat in a dying man.
The defibrillator, which has sat unused in Unicare pharmacy in Rathborne for over a year, played a key role in the first-aid treatment of a middle-aged cyclist who suffered heart failure in the area recently.
“The cyclist had collapsed close to where we are located,” pharmacist Fergus Gibbons explained.
“Luckily, an off-duty doctor was jogging in the area and knew that we had a defibrillator in-store.
“When I arrived with the equipment, the man had no heart rhythm but the defibrillator quickly managed to re-establish a slight heart beat.
“There is no doubt that it bought him some valuable time while the emergency services were on the way.”

Fergus added: “I think the real hero of the day was the person who decided to get the defibrillator for the pharmacy. You can never predict when or if you will ever have a need for this piece of equipment.
“It’s a pity that more businesses don’t have them.”
The defibrillator is a portable electronic device which sends a shock through the heart in an effort to re-establish a heartbeat.
Each year approximately 7,000 Irish men and women die from heart attacks due to reduced blood supply.
Brian Downes of Pulse Medical in Damastown, the company which supplies the equipment, explained how important the gadget is.
“Each day around 16 people in Ireland go into cardiac arrest while they are going about their daily life,” he said.
“These victims have a two per cent survival rate. However, if they have access to a defibrillator, their survival rate shoots up to 70 per cent.
“Essentially, this piece of equipment could save up to 5,000 lives a year.”
According to Mr Downes, a defibrillator - which costs less than a plasma TV - is a worthwhile investment.
“Unicare’s defibrillator is a top of the range one which also coaches first-aid and guides people through how to carry out compressions,” he told Northside People.
“The machine used in the recent incident would also have stored all the information on the compression rates given at the scene and the ECG reading of the heart.”

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