The Burgh and Tuttington Parish Council is considering ways in which the Bee-Gees might be able to offer some help for the village in the event of an emergency. Well, indirectly…
At the last Parish Council meeting – held in Tuttington church – the matter of a community defibrillator for Tuttington was again brought up for discussion. Most of our neighbouring villages have one so why not us? Seems like a no-brainer. After all, in the unfortunate event of a cardiac arrest, patients need rapid intervention and a nearby defibrillator should fit the bill. However, it has been said that operating community debfibrillators is not always stratghtforward for everyone, especially in the panic of a family member or neighbour suffering a cardiac arrest. In a case reported for a village nearby, the ambulance turned up before anyone could access the defibrillator.
And, apart from that there are the practicalities of ongoing maintenance costs together with the initial layout of funds. Arguing against having a village defibrillator might be an unpopular stance to take for a potentially life-saving device but what’s to be done? There are some statistics to indicate that rapid intervention by someone starting effective CPR while an ambulance is on its way (hopefully, for us from the ambulance base in Dunkirk two minutes away) has as good a chance of success as someone working out how to get a defibrillator going in a panic.
So the Parish Council have decided to look into the possibility of organising training in CRP (cadiopulmonary resuscitation) for anyone in the parish who would like to be involved. The idea of getting a village defibrillator is still under consideration, but for the time being CPR is a good skill for everyone to have. It could mean the difference between life or death.
So where do the Bee Gees come into it? It is recommended that chest compressions be performed in time to the Bee Gees song “Staying Alive”, which most people know.
If you want to know how to do CPR now, follow this link to the St John Ambulance site to find out. There will, no doubt, be more information about this topic from the Parish Council in due course.