Macclesfield Town Council funds defibrillators

Macclesfield Town Council has provided and installed two additional Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) for the safety of the town.

AEDs do not require training and can be used by anyone to shock a person’s heart back to normal rhythm if they suffer sudden cardiac arrest. When used alongside cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), they raise the chance of survival from 9% to 50% when compared to the use of CPR alone.

The first unit is located on the corner of Brocklehurst Way and Manchester Road in Tytherington, housed inside a former telephone box.  David Edwardes, ward councillor for Tytherington identified the phone box as a suitable location and organised for Macclesfield Town Council to take responsibility for it, as well as coordinating the work involved to clean and prepare it ready for the AED installation.

The second is located at Park Green next to The Traditional Barbers in an area with a busy night time economy and a high footfall during the evenings. 

Each AED unit is housed in a temperature-controlled cabinet with access controlled by the 999 emergency services. In an emergency the caller will be directed to their nearest AED unit and given a code to release the ready-charged, ready to use defibrillator. Once the unit is with the patient, the user-friendly defibrillator will have easy-to-understand visual instructions and voice prompts, along with CPR chest pumping advice to administer until paramedics arrive on the scene. The defibrillator cannot be used incorrectly as it will only deliver a shock to the patient only if it detects it is necessary.  

Pete Turner, Town Clerk for Macclesfield said ‘This equipment will make such a difference in the event of a heart emergency, as it will be accessible to everyone. We welcome the support of the people of Macclesfield in the much needed placement of public access defibrillators for use by all in the community in the event of an emergency.  Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone, at any time, and is the UK’s biggest killer, killing more people than breast cancer, lung cancer and Aids combined. Every community should have lifesaving public-access AEDs available 24/7 ready in cases of emergency.”