Concern as Longford defibrillator condition in N4 Axis Centre sparks meeting

After stumbling upon a public access defibrillator on the wall of a building in the N4 Axis, Darren Mulleady, a paramedic and  member of Ballymahon Defibrillator Group, highlighted a concern. Aside from observing the degrading condition of the cabinet, the code to get access to it was not registered on the National Ambulance Service in Tallaght's system upon enquiry. 

Highlighting this has led to a meeting on October 29 at 8pm in the Longford Vintage Club in Connolly Barracks.

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"I enquired of some local businesses near the defibrillator, no one seemed to know who owns it or who looks after it," Darren told the 'Longford Leader'. 

With nobody able to identify it, Darren took a photo of what the defibrillator presently looks like, and put up a post on Facebook leaving my phone number if anyone had any information, which garnered a lot of interest. After 24-hours, Darren received a call from a gentleman, giving the access code to open the cabinet and gave permission to remove the defibrillator off the wall.

"This got me thinking, Longford town is a big busy town and from my research the public don’t know where their nearest public access defibrillators is.

"I spoke and met with to two of my colleagues in the National Ambulance Service based in Longford ambulance station, Jacinta Dervin and Keith Gurn, I also spoke to Emma Reid who is a Civil Defence Officer and is a Community First Responder for Longford town. All agreed we need to do something."

The aim of this meeting is to elect a group that would form Longford Town Defibrillator Group.

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