Defibrillators

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Storey, on tabling the debate this afternoon. I felt compelled to speak after a chance encounter with a young girl and her family who I met at the Paralympics in 2012. Ruby is a wheelchair user because she had a heart attack in school at the age of five. She is now 10. Luckily, and amazingly for Ruby, her teacher had been on a course—I think just a week before—and knew what she had to do to save Ruby's live. She was starved of oxygen for 40 minutes and left with many severe impairments and a heart condition. Apart from one or two isolated cases that I had heard in the news, this was the first time that I had met a child who had had a heart attack, and it had a big impact on me. Her parents are amazing and they give her an incredible and fulfilling life, but it led me to wonder whether, if there had been a defibrillator in the school, her life might now be very different.

In researching for this debate I was contacted by a number of people. One or two raised some legitimate questions about the potential cost of having this equipment in every school and sports club versus the number of heart attacks that occur. In the end, all members of the public who got in touch were in support of equipment in every school. I have seen figures suggesting that up to 12 young people a week are affected by this and perhaps the Minister would clarify the scale of the problem. Obviously the cost per unit versus the cost of medical treatment constitutes a significant saving, but this is not about money. It is about saving young people’s lives—and other people’s lives. I was contacted by a teacher who said that they had a defibrillator in their school; a teacher had had a heart attack and survived.

I was also contacted by a lady from a local community group who said that a person had had a heart attack at their centre and died. However, there was a lot of reluctance to have equipment in the centre because people were not sure about how to use it or about the safety. Most of the time when we think about defibrillators, we think about something from a movie or TV when everybody stands back and it is all very dramatic, rather than the modern technology which, I have been assured, is fool-proof. Someone puts the pads on and the machine takes the decisions. No one has to make the decision about whether it is a heart attack or not, the machine does that.

We also tend to think of this occurring when somebody takes exercise. There was a report in the Hampshire Chronicle on 29 March 2014 about a Mountbatten School pupil in Winchester, Sam Mangoro. He nearly died when he had a heart attack in a PE lesson. He was just 16. Again, he was really lucky. His life was saved by trained members of staff who had access to a defibrillator. As a result of this, the parent-teacher association of another school in the area, the Westgate School, purchased one. However, these are really hard decisions for head teachers to take. Put “defibrillator” and “schools” into a search engine and there is a list of companies willing to sell this equipment. How does a head teacher, a parent or somebody raising money know what is the right equipment to buy?

I was therefore delighted with the Department for Education announcement that the Government are working to identify suppliers. They will look at competitive price, because that is important, but also at the statutory guidelines and advice for schools on supporting pupils with medical conditions. It is important that the Department for Education and the Department of Health take a lead on this, to guide PTAs and schools and make sure that they buy the appropriate equipment.

This should also be on the school curriculum. My husband, who is a triathlon coach, recently went on a first-aid course and learnt how to do heart massage. It reminded me that the last time I did anything like this was when I was a Brownie a very long time ago. Until my husband mentioned it, I thought that I knew what I was doing. I remembered that the numbers five and two were involved, but I could not remember whether it was how many times I was meant to breathe or how many times I was meant to press somebody hard. It made me realise that if I saw somebody have a heart attack, I would be extremely reluctant to get involved, because I would be more worried about causing any more damage than doing something that could help. My daughter helpfully joined the conversation. She is 12 and in school she was taught what to do, using the song “Nellie the Elephant”, which is a brilliant way of doing it, and she would be able to step in and help.

Since I saw this debate tabled, I have noticed signs in many more shopping centres and elsewhere showing where defibrillators are. It made me realise that I am not sure where they are in the Palace of Westminster. I suppose that we are lucky to have a number of eminent doctors or professors here, so we are in a pretty good place if anything should happen to us.

Most sports clubs are very small. They are run by volunteers and do not have a lot of money, so the cost of installing such equipment would be prohibitive even though I think that a lot of them would want it. If there were to be a scheme for schools, it would be an excellent idea to extend it to local sports voluntary clubs so that they would be able to access the right equipment. It is also important that we carry on pushing training courses. I know that they are provided in many sports, but for a lot of voluntary sports clubs it raises issues around training, insurance and the worry about what would happen.

I did not realise until I saw this debate tabled that you can get a free app for your phone which enables you to find the location of your nearest defibrillator. It also has an emergency 999 button already on the screen so that you do not have to press all the buttons. I have not tried it yet, and hope that I will not have to, but things like that should be publicised. It is in that moment of panic, when you see something happening, that you need all the help and guidance that you can get.

We should take this matter very seriously. I want to see defibrillators installed in schools and sports clubs and generally more awareness about what can be done to help people if they suffer a heart attack.