Our View – Defibrillators Save Lives

IT is estimated that every year more than 30.000 people die in Spain due to cardiac arrest (heart attacks).

Councils across the country have over the years installed defibrillators in official buildings as well as municipal sports centres in order to try to help save lives.

The defibrillator is basically a device designed to deliver an electric charge to the heart and hopefully allow it to start beating again normally.

It is equipped with sensors that analyse the heart’s rhythm and indicate the right time to apply a charge and at what intensity.

It is not particularly difficult to use one of these devices, but to really help save lives everyone should have prior training and this is clearly not possible.

The good news however is that when a defibrillator has been installed in a council property, there will be someone who has been properly trained to use it.

The drawback of course is that the victim of the heart attack must be near to the site of the machine and also council offices tend to close relatively early in the day although airports, bus terminals, stations and large shopping centres as well as pharmacies also possess them.

In some cases, the defibrillator is automatically linked to 112 emergency services but each Autonomous Community has its own rules about use of the defibrillator with some deciding that it can only be used by a trained operator.

Unlike the UK there doesn’t appear to be an online defibrillator finder for Spain so it’s best to contact your local council to ask for information on where its machines are located.