Street defibrillator installed on Blackpool Victoria Hospital access road

When deployed, the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) can increase someone’s chance of survival from a sudden cardiac arrest by 70 per cent.

The machine was sited by the Atlas Office on Whinney Heys Road because of the high foot-fall in that area from patients accessing the emergency department or using

the multi-storey car park to staff deployed in the surrounding area and neighbours living in the vicinity.

Anthony Freestone, resuscitation lead at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: “The hospital and ambulance service identified this area as being a risk for someone

going into cardiac arrest on the street. The Defibstore kindly donated the cabinet which allowed us to allocate a machine to this area.”

If the machine is needed, a passcode will be given by the 999 operator to access the AED and the device is able to give verbal instructions for use, meaning it can be used

by someone who has had no training.