Public Access AED – PR

Killarney Cardiac Response Unit would like to highlight the importance of public access AED within the community.

An AED is an Automated External Defibrillator. It is a portable, simple to use, computerised device. When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest it delivers a shock to the heart to allow it to resume its normal rhythm.

A cardiac arrest is a sudden loss of heart function which causes a person to collapse. When this happens the person will not respond and will not be breathing normally (either gasping or not breathing at all). This is caused because something has gone wrong with the heart’s electrical system, and without immediate CPR and defibrillation the person will not survive.

Out of hospital Cardiac arrest has a survival rate of 7.2% this can be improved through following the steps in the chain of survival.

Early access – Recognizing an emergency and calling 999 or 112  Early CPR  Early AED use Early advanced life support Post resus care

Killarney has currently 18 fully accessible public access AED’s located throughout the town centre and surrounding locality. These devices in a variety of cabinets and Heart of Ireland phone boxes are available 24/7 in an emergency for use by the public. Killarney is an official Heartsafe community thanks to the efforts of the Michael Linehan Heartsafe Killarney charity who raised funds to install most of Killarneys AEDs back in 2010. Units are maintained and kept in good working order by KCRU.

It is essential that they are ready for use in the event of an emergency.

We encourage everyone to continue to respect these devices, Find out the location of your nearest AED and learn the steps to take in an emergency.

Find your nearest AED at www.killarneycru.ie