Today our Managing Director Andrew Cotter visited our Defibrillator Competition winner, Lowerhouse Junior School based in Burnley. He met with Headteacher Claire Holgate who herself has survived both a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.
Lowerhouse won our Free Defibrillator Competition after being nominated by Jane Butcher who was inspired by the life-saving actions of her friend and colleague, Kate Cain.
Kate, a Cardiac Registered nurse and Lowerhouse Junior School Governor was in attendance at a governors meeting in December 2014. During the meeting she noticed that another governor, David Etherington who attended the meeting looked very unwell. David excused himself from the meeting and Kate assisted him to the reception area.
There his condition deteriorated rapidly and he “went off”. Kate jumped into action, immediately placing David on the floor and commencing CPR as she recognised he wasn’t breathing. She also ensured that someone called 999. Kate managed to get the gentleman breathing again and waited with him until the first response ambulance team arrived.
Kate said: “As a coronary care nurse I am used to dealing with situations like this but it has never happened to me before out of work.
“David said he was leaving the meeting as he felt poorly and needed some air. I could see he looked very unwell so I followed him out and that is when he collapsed and stopped breathing.
“Luckily I was able to resuscitate him so by the time the ambulance arrived he was breathing again.
“I am just so happy David is ok and is on the road to recovery.”
Retired teacher David (73), whose 10-year-old granddaughter Hannah is a pupil at Lowerhouse, said: “I would like to thank Kate for everything she did for me. It is all a bit of a blur and I don’t really remember what happened but if she had not been there to help me the outcome could have been so much worse.”
Each year in the UK over 70,000 people suffer an out of hospital Cardiac Arrest. Less than 1 in 5 receives the treatment needed to save their lives and less than 10% survive. With cutbacks to emergency services and the increase in heart disease, readily available Defibrillators are needed now more than ever.
