The lifesavers are live

You probably won't know they're around. But if you need them, they might just save your life.

The recent official inauguration of the Kilcullen defibrillator team means that there is one more level of help for people who suffer a sudden heart seizure and to whom life's end might be but minutes away without immediate intervention.

There are now 17 fully trained volunteers in the town, who are on a 24/7 roster to respond to a call from the area's Ambulance Service to attend somebody stricken with what might be a cardiac arrest.

When on duty, whether during their working hours or at leisure, the person on roster will have close to them the defibrillator machine bought through the good offices of the Kilcullen Lions Club, and will be able to respond immediately when asked.

Their job is to assess whether and how a stricken person can be helped, either by the administration of oxygen or with the more serious use of a jolt from the defibrillator, pending the arrival of an ambulance team.

"We respond only to the Ambulance Service," team member Des Travers emphasises. "But it means that we can be available to an unwell person much more quickly than the ambulance can get here."

The area served by the team is designated as 'three minutes drive from the traffic lights', and that is the distance -- approximately three kilometres -- within which each team member must be while on roster duty.

"There are some places we don't go," Des Travers notes. "We won't attend a situation in a pub, for instance. Nor are we to go into any situation where we would be exposed to personal danger or attack."

The team has done many hours of training in the use of the equipment, with the help of a simulator machine and a number of special mannequins. And training is ongoing even now after the system has 'gone live'.

"We've had a lot of help from our colleagues in Dunlavin, which must be acknowledged. And quite a number of people living locally who are trained professionals in the rescue services have come along to contribute in a coaching capacity."

The official launch included the presentation of certificates to the team members by the Ambulance Service, in the presence of a number of local and national political representatives, the secretary of Kildare County Council, and officers of the Kilcullen Lions Club which raised the €6,000 required for the defibrillator system and training aids.

"Such has been the response from the community towards being part of this that I'm hopeful we can get another machine soon," Des Travers says.

When a team member is on roster, typically for daytime while at work, or overnight while at home, they must always be available to go into action immediately when contacted on the mobile phone that goes with the equipment set.

"There's no doubt that the duty is an imposition on team members," Des Travers observes. "For instance, if somebody is rostered on a Saturday, with the equipment in their car, their partner can't go shopping in the car unless the team member goes along too. And such shopping is also limited to being in Kilcullen itself, because the responder must be no more than three minutes away."

But if just one life is saved because there was somebody available with a defibrillator, then each and every member of the team will feel that to be more than worth any inconvenience they have experienced.

Brian Byrne.