Life Saving Defibrillators In Police Cars
Highway Patrol, Strategic Traffic Unit and Commercial
Vehicle Safety Team
vehicles now have an Automated
External Defibrillator (AED) to help
save
lives.
Police has rolled out AEDs in 368
vehicles across the country as part of
its
commitment to safe homes, safe roads, and safe
communities.
“We are often the first on the scene at
crashes or medical events,” says
Superintendent
Steve Greally, Director National Road Policing
Centre.
“Having an AED in vehicles means we can provide
support to someone
suffering from heart failure
until the medical emergency team arrives.”
An AED is a
lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric
shock
through the chest to the heart. The shock can
potentially stop an irregular
heartbeat
(arrhythmia) and allow a normal rhythm to resume following
sudden
cardiac arrest (SCA). According to St John,
SCA is one of the leading causes
of death in New
Zealand.
“Someone living in an urban area might expect
a rapid response from a
mobile medical service,
like St John, but this isn’t the case in the
more
rural parts of New Zealand,” says
Superintendent Greally.
An AED can increase someone’s
survival chances by up to 44 per cent.
Without an
AED the chance of survival decreases by 10 per cent for
each
minute that passes without
defibrillation.
Steve Dickson, Acting Road Policing
Manager Northland says, “I have no
doubt that the
availability of defibs in Police vehicles in remote
Northland
communities will save a life – it’s
just a matter of when.” Northland
District has
been allocated 10 AEDs.
Southern District Acting Road
Policing Manager Ian Temple says “One of
our
fundamental roles is to preserve life. Having
these defibrillators in many of
our patrol vehicles
in rural and provincial areas means we’re now
better
placed to help people in need.” Southern
District has been allocated 23
AEDs.
Dan
Mattison, Road Policing Manager Tasman says, “We have a
geographically
spread district with a scattered,
aging population and limited resources. Our
staff
are out in the community and often the first on hand in
times of
crisis. These AEDs are a critical tool to
enable officers to respond
effectively when crucial
minutes can determine the outcome.” Tasman
has
been allocated 13 AEDs.
Canterbury District
Road Policing Manager Natasha Rodley says,
“Having
defibrillators means we can act quickly
and potentially save more lives. When
it comes to
cardiac arrests, a few minutes can make all the difference
as to
whether someone comes home from hospital or
not.” Canterbury District has
been allocated 14
AEDs.
Commercial Vehicle Safety Team (CVST) National
Manager Mike Brooklands says,
“Having the AED in
the CVST vehicles ensures an ever-wider coverage
across
the network especially in the remote rural
areas. We can support families in
critical times of
need by decreasing the response time of other
emergency
services and potentially save a life.”
The four CVSTs have been allocated
70
AEDs.
Districts Auckland City, Waitemata and
Counties/Manukau have 66 AEDs. Waikato
and Bay of
Plenty have received 65 AEDs. Central District has 34 AEDs
while
Eastern has 13 and Wellington has eight. The
remaining 52 have been allocated
to national road
safety vehicles (Highway Patrol and Mobile Road
Safety
Bases).
The 368 AEDs rolled out to
districts are additional to existing
district
AEDs.