LONDON — A new London Ambulance Service initiative to place defibrillators around the city has resulted in 10 lives saved so far.
In the six months since the “Shockingly Easy” campaign launched, 493 of the automated external defibrillators have been placed in shops, businesses and gyms, according to a press release.
There are currently more than 2,600 locations in London with at least one defibrillator, including tube stations, museums and gyms. The aim of the campaign is to is to install 1,000 additional defibrillators within a year. Businesses that join that campaign also get training for staff on how to use the defibrillator.
“The quicker that CPR and defibrillation is given to a patient in cardiac arrest, the greater their chance of survival,” said Ambulance Operations Manager Chris Hartley-Sharpe. “Around a third of people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest, but where there is a defibrillator and someone trained to use it, the chance of survival can increase to 80 percent.”