Cookstown residents’ group urge other estates to consider installing defibrillator

Coolnafranky Park Residents Association want to ensure that any resident, or member of the community close by, would have the best chance possible to survive such a medical emergency.

It is believed to be one of the few estates in Northern ireland to have a defibrillator installed and are urging others to consider providing one.

A spokersperson said: "After a lapse of many years we decided to reform the Residents Association during lockdown in 2020 in order to provide a forum for residents to meet formally to consider matters of local concern and importance, to encourage and promote a sense of community spirit and to oppose racism, sexism, harassment and all forms of discrimination.

"We are mainly a self-funded organisation and fund projects such as kids fun days, day trips to the beach, the annual Residents Christmas party by having a weekly bonus ball and organising various raffles such as our annual Easter raffle.

"The reason why we decided to purchase a defibrator was that a resident, unfortunately, passed away with cardiac arrest and we wanted to ensure going forward that any resident or member of the community close by would have the best chance possible to survive such a medical emergency.

"We explored various options of defibrillators and the one problem we had was that we had no direct power source to power the cabinet to house the defibrillator due to complications of connecting to existing power on site.

"We were determined to find a solution and after researching several types of defibrillator cabinets we had decided to purchase a solar powered cabinet.

"With assistance from Shane Conlon, from the local Housing Executive, we were able to chose a location in the centre of the estate and form a concrete base with pavers to house this cabinet."

The Association purchased from the defibrillator and cabinet from Emergency Medical Supplies and it was fitted by residents Sean and Tony Devlin.

Training took place last month and was attended by 11 residents.

The spokesperson added: “We hope we will never have to use it but if we do it will give that person a better chance of survival.”