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Knightswood fire station leads life-saving push
Publication date 04 July 2019
Knightswood Fire Station in Glasgow has become the first venue to unveil a potentially life-saving device as part of a push to save lives across the west of the city.
The defibrillator, which can help save someone's life if they have a cardiac arrest, has been installed on the outside of the station. It will be available 24/7 for any member of the public to use in an emergency.
It's the first to be officially unveiled as part of a joint project between St John Scotland and Glasgow Community Planning Partnership, to provide eight new defibrillators across west Glasgow. Three more to be unveiled locally will be sited at the Three Craws pub, the Whiteinch Centre, and Broomhill Hyndland Parish Church.
Around 70 people each week in Scotland have a sudden cardiac arrest, but currently, only around one in 12 will survive.
For each minute that passes without any treatment, the person's chances of survival drop by 10%. By starting CPR as quickly as possible, and using a defibrillator where one is available, survival rates increase significantly.
Margaret McAdam, Chair of St John Scotland's Glasgow Area, said: "We know that to be most effective, a defibrillator needs to be used within the first few minutes of the person collapsing. We are keen that every community has access to one of these vital devices, and we realised that there are just not enough defibrillators across Glasgow. So we've been very pleased to be able to work with the Community Planning Partnership to co-fund eight new defibs for the area."
She continued: "We are thankful to Knightswood Fire Station for agreeing to host this defibrillator for the benefit of the community, and we are looking forward to installing more at key sites across the area. Our volunteers are also going to be organising a series of events over the summer to help people learn about cardiac arrest, how to do CPR, and how to use the defibrillator if they ever need to."
Councillor Jen Layden, Chair of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership, said: "I welcome the use of funding from a number of our Area Partnerships in the west of the city to support this life-saving project. The need for defibrillators was identified locally, and working together with St John Scotland and Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, members of the community will now have access to vital equipment and importantly, information on how to use them."