Life-saving defibrillators have been installed at railway stations across Pembrokeshire, as Transport for Wales continues its rollout of 200 across the Wales and Borders rail network.
Defibrillators have been installed in the past few weeks at Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Narberth, Johnston Kilgetty, Manorbier, Pembroke, Tenby and Whitland stations in Phase Two of the nationwide scheme, which began in February 2022.
Defibrillators are important portable life-saving devices that can give a casualty’s heart an electric shock when it has stopped beating, normally in a sudden cardiac arrest.
According to British Heart Foundation Cymru, there are around 2,800 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Wales each year, but just one in 20 people survive.
Survival rates fall by 10 per cent every minute without CPR or by using a defibrillator and using a defibrillator within three minutes of a cardiac arrest can improve a person's chance of survival by as much as 70 per cent.
Transport for Wales will continue to work on future phases, which will see more than 200 defibrillators installed at many railway stations across the Wales and Borders network by the end of the project.
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Lisa Cleminson, Transport for Wales’ stations director, said: “We’re proud to be rolling out defibrillators across the Wales and Borders network. These yellow boxes are vitally important in helping those who experience a cardiac arrest, be they TfW customers, colleagues or someone in the local community.
“We already have defibrillators in many of our stations across our network, and these additional new machines will become a valuable life-saving resource.”
“We’re encouraging customers and community to support us in keeping this equipment safe and secure by being vigilant and reporting any incidences of vandalism immediately to British Transport Police by texting 61016.”
The project has been organised by TfW’s Rail Infrastructure Director Karl Gilmore, who added: “All of the defibrillators will be available 24 hours a day but, more crucially, they will all be listed on The Circuit so emergency services staff know where they are located.
“Our staff will be given training on how to use the defibrillators and we’re working with charities and other organisations to make sure we can roll out training into communities.”
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