There are many great appeals to living in the countryside, but one problem many rural communities do face is that they can be relatively isolated from medical facilities.
Whereas those living in major cities will always be close to a hospital, emergencies in small towns or rural locations may receive a much slower response. In some cases, an air ambulance can help, but often the help needed is so urgent that a few minutes can make the difference between life and death.
This is never more so than in cases of cardiac arrest. A defibrillator can save a life in such circumstances and while these are a common sight in hospitals, they have increasingly been seen in other locations.
Places such as sports centres, football grounds, libraries and other public buildings where many gather are one instance, but they can also be put in much smaller sites.
Dial A Defibrillator
A frequent case is the re-use of old phone boxes. In an age of mobile phones, there are very few that function in the way they used to, but many have been converted to contain defibrillators.
Many of these can be found on websites like the Defibfinder, which helps people to locate where the nearest public access defibrillator is.
For example, the site reveals that there are three close to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria, a remote village that happens to mark the western end of the Hadrian’s Wall long distance path. Among the nearby defibrillators is one in an old phone box close to the Highland Laddie Pub, right next to the trail.
It might seem an odd thing to put where lots of (presumably) fit walkers are heading. But even apparently healthy people can have undiagnosed heart conditions and succumb to a cardiac arrest, especially after a lot of physical exertion.
Other notable former phone boxes containing defibrillators include one on Werneth Low, a hill above Hyde in Greater Manchester, which is notable because one side of it, rather than bearing the word ‘telephone’, has the word ‘Tejrjwne’. Nobody knows why, except, presumably, whoever installed it.
If you want your community to benefit from having a defibrillator close at hand, an old phone box may be just the place for it. It doesn’t have to be near a national trail or have a strange name. It just needs to be available for when someone needs it to save a life. Alternatively, the local village hall, pub or church may host it.
Defibrillators, Not Deserts
Many parts of the country have previously been highlighted as ‘defibrillator deserts’ with little or no access to the devices. Among these was East Lancashire but, the Lancashire Telegraph recently reported, the situation has improved significantly in the last six months.
During this time, Blackburn with Darwen saw a 9.9 per cent increase in provision, while neighbouring Hyndburn witnessed a 6.3 per cent increase.
These boroughs constitute a mix of historic mill towns and moorland countryside, but wherever you are located, getting a defibrillator installed in an accessible building, an old phone box or even a stand-alone kiosk can be an absolute lifesaver.