Local volunteers receive life-saving training

By Rebecca McGirr

BUSINESSES and community groups in Omagh have come together to receive life-saving training.

Twenty volunteers from the Brookmount Road area have received lessons in using a defibrillator from the Omagh Order of Malta.

The training was provided to local community organisations and businesses to ensure that people in the area know how to use the vital piece of life-saving equipment should the need arise.

Josephine Treanor, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s community support officer for the Omagh area, coordinated the project.

According to the British Heart Foundation and the Department of Health, Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death in the United Kingdom, accounting for an estimated 100,000 deaths each year.

Research has shown that deploying a defibrillator within three to five minutes of collapse can produce survival rates as high as 50 to 70 per-cent.

Declan O’Neill, from Strule and Centenary Residents Association, said he felt that it was important as a community group to engage in the project as a way to “help benefit the local community”.

He said, “We wanted people to see us as a group not just about fun days but about enhancing the quality of people’s lives.”

Since the training took place an external defibrillator has been installed at Sweeney’s Centra on the Brookmount Road in Omagh.

Mr O’Neill said, “If that piece of life-saving equipment was ever needed at least it would be there. With waiting lists and pressure on the health service at the moment it could be critical to saving someone’s life because every minute counts.”

The defibrillator has been registered on the National Defibrillator Network, ‘The Circuit’, which gives cardiac arrest victims the best chance of surviving by linking the national network of defibrillators to every ambulance service in the country.

The organising committee would like to thank the local community for supporting the project, including people who donated to the collections or the JustGiving page, local businesses that provided sponsorship, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council for coordinating the project, as well as the Omagh Order of Malta for providing the training.