A Tramore-based mother is calling for more awareness when it comes to defibrillators.

Conflicting information was given to Terrie Skilton, as her daughter went through an emergency medical situation last week.

Ms. Skilton says the defibrillators closest to her in Tramore were locked away in a private premises, however, an individual eventually came to the rescue and gave the family access to the device.

Ms. Skilton said she contacted 999 when her daughter required medical assistance as well as asking her daughter to contact the Gardaí to get advice when it came to the location of a defibrillator, however she said she was sent to a location with no defibrillator. Ms. Skilton was, however, aware of where another defibrillator was available in the locality.

“So when my daughter phoned the guards to find the information, she was sent to a shop that did not have a defibrillator. I want to stress this. Everything was ok, but had we needed it, it may have been a different story.”

WLR searched ‘defibrillator Waterford’ online with a mixture of results with some information dating back as far as 2017.

There is not yet a publicly available database available to the public, with many local organisations and community groups making their own posts on their websites with locations.

Terrie continued saying she wants to raise awareness.

“We were sent to the wrong place. I’m concerned that we have quite a few elderly neighbors. If something happened to one of them or we needed it in a hurry, we need to know where to go. We didn’t have access at that time and we weren’t given the correct information. I spoke to the sergeant in the barracks and he has acted on this immediately, they have been great.

“It definitely isn’t a case of wanting to blame anyone. I put up a post on a local community group in Tramore just for a little bit more awareness and to open the discussion.

“We don’t have time to be running from A to B with false information or not having an understanding of what we need to be doing. We had the ambulance on the way. I know my daughter’s pre-existing condition. The chances of us actually needing a defibrillator were very, very slim.

“It wasn’t an immediate life or death situation. I lost my husband to a heart attack several years ago, so we like to remain cautious. 

“The point I’m raising is that the ones that were available were behind locked premises. Now, I don’t know, as I said, whether we should have had access to them but if we shouldn’t, then can they be counted as being in the community even?”.

As 8-8 cardiac weekend cover at UHW is set to begin this month, many people across Waterford remain concerned when it comes to cardiac care.

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