‘They saved my life, I hope this gift will save others’
A MAN whose life was saved by an on-loan defibrillator at Les Cotils has donated a permanent defibrillator to the site.
Rick Denton was attending a conference at Les Cotils earlier this year. While having a bite to eat afterwards he suddenly felt woozy and collapsed.
Had it not been for the fast action and training of bystanders, he would have died.
‘I was just having a coffee and, dare I say it, a bacon sandwich,’ said Mr Denton. ‘I began to feel quite woozy all of a sudden and I collapsed having gone into cardiac arrest. My heart had stopped pumping, so to all intents and purposes I was dead,’ he said.
‘Unless CPR can be performed and action taken you either will not live or you will suffer great damage should you do.
‘Fortunately when I collapsed I had people on hand who had received St John’s training. When they saw I was unresponsive they immediately began performing CPR and called for help.’
Even more fortunate for Mr Denton was that the managing director of St John Training Services, Steve Ford, was at Les Cotils at the time and had a defibrillator in his car on loan from the Cardiac Action Group. ‘Luckily, Steve was able to get the defibrillator and shock me with it,’ Mr Denton said.
‘In the space of two-and-a-half minutes I was awake and responsive. If it hadn’t been for those people who took action and saved my life then I wouldn’t be here. There is less than a 10% survival rate from cardiac arrest.’
Mr Denton would like to thank St John Ambulance and its staff, the Cardiac Action Group and all those who save lives in these situations.
He aims to get as many automated external defibrillators – AEDs – in place around the island as possible and would like one at each major sporting venue in time for the 2021 Island Games.
‘St John is an organisation that saves lives every day,’ he said.
‘If we donate then we will save other people’s lives – the more trained people there are, the more access to defibrillators there are, the more lives that will be saved.
‘This can affect anyone and everyone, you don’t have to be unfit, many sports people suffer cardiac arrests because they have really low salts – we hear about footballers collapsing on the pitch, for example.
‘I am happy to be able to donate this because this is a great centre and is used by everyone. We need to remember that prompt action saves lives.’
St John commercial services relationship manager Jac Llewellyn-Jones said: ‘We supply the AED to companies and organisations and then we also provide one hour’s free training with each device to allow people to familiarise themselves with the device.
‘We’ve sold quite a few to businesses across the island but also we can provide training to anyone who wants it even if they don’t have a device. It can be very comforting to people to know that they will know what to if that situation occurs.’
Les Cotils managing director Fiona Naftel said AEDs were vital for saving lives.
‘You pray that nothing like this ever happens again, but if it does we are prepared, thanks to a generous, generous gift,’ she said.
‘Until you see it happening in front of you, you have no idea these devices literally save lives they are so, so important.’
