Browne calls for defibrillator awareness campaign

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Tipperary TD Martin Browne is encouraging authorities to invest in defibrillator awareness and CPR training in schools.

The pleas follow the death of a man due to a heart attack in deputy Browne’s Cashel constituency office last Monday.

The Sinn Féin TD has praised the paramedics and all frontline staff who attempted to save the man’s life, and he’s offered his condolences to the family.

Deputy Browne has written to the Council asking them to carry out an audit of all defibrillators in Tipperary, so they can be easily located in emergencies.

He also says training needs to be stepped up in schools.

“In my own opinion, I think from fifth class, maybe fourth class up, that CPR and defibrillator training should be given to youngsters either in the curriculum or as part of PE classes.

“I know myself, I had CPR and defibrillator courses done, so I knew what to do when it happened last Monday. I can imagine someone in a situation that hadn’t any of that training done, that panic may set in.”

And he also says that defibrillators need to be more easily located across the county in the case of emergency.

“What we’ve asked the Council to do a while back, and I’m putting the plea out again today and we’ve wrote to the Council since, is to do an audit of defibrillators around the county. And for the want of a notice board or some signage in the middle of a town or village, to say that defibrillators are in X, Y or Z in the town.”