On Monday 20^th November, a 75-year-old woman was attending a regular hygienist appointment at Clifton Dental Practice when she became unresponsive in the chair.

Principle dentist Paul White retrieved the defibrillator and began the rescue process. Along with his colleague, Paul administered life-saving CPR which paired with a shock from the defibrillator, brought the woman back to responsiveness.

Purchased from defibshop, they had only received their Heartsine Samaritan Pad 350P at the beginning of October, following their CPR training course and they hadn’t expected to use it so soon.

Receptionist Sheryl told me, “We were so pleased we had the defibrillator as it delivered the shock, which saved her life.”

The woman is now in Leeds Hospital awaiting an operation and was diagnosed with a blocked left ventricle.

Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, regardless of their age, gender, fitness level or lifestyle choices.

The only definitive treatment for a victim of cardiac arrest is the use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and effective CPR. If delivered within 3-5 minutes following the collapse, the victim's chance of survival raises from 6% to 74%. For each minute that passes without definitive treatment, the chance of survival drops by 10-14%.

Current ambulance target response times sit at 11 minutes in urban areas, which means that early intervention with an AED and bystander CPR is vital to saving someone's life.

To find out more about defibrillators, visit our AEDs page or call one of our helpful team on 0845 071 0830.