It has been just over three months since Christian Eriksen, the Denmark national football team captain, collapsed during a Euro 2020 match against Finland.
As people around the world watched the remarkable medical team intervene to save Christian Eriksen’s life, it became clear that the football star suffered a cardiac arrest.
Thankfully, the quick-thinking medical team jumped into action and carried out CPR on him and used a defibrillator to save his life.
But unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as Christian Eriksen.
Some 30,000 people across the UK suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospitals every year, with only 1-in-10 people before the pandemic surviving.
And now the British Heart Foundation are estimating that 1-in-20 people survive.
Defibrillators play a huge part in saving someone’s life when they suffer a cardiac arrest. If used within 3-5 minutes of cardiac arrest, it can increase survival rates from 6% to 74%.
Without immediate treatment, 80-95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims will die, which is why access to defibrillators is so important.
And yet a lot of people do not know where their nearest defibrillator is, or how they work.
Defibrillators are machines which can restore a heart’s normal rhythm if it stops beating. It will then assess the heart’s rhythm and status and decide if a person needs an electric shock to restore their heart function.
One thing not many people know about defibrillators is that you cannot hurt someone by using one, or accidentally shock them, because the machine makes the assessment, not you.
And they are easy to use as automatic vocal instructions will guide you through the process at all times as soon as you open the defib box.
Given their life-saving impact, it is fundamentally important that we have defibrillators installed in as many easily-accessible public spaces across Wales as possible.
The need for more defibrillators in Wales came back under the spotlight again over the summer after two sports players lost their lives.
Maqsood Anwar, aged 44, died after suffering a suspected heart attack while playing cricket in the Vale of Glamorgan earlier in the summer, and a few weeks later 31-year-old Alex Evans died after having a cardiac arrest while playing rugby in Neath Port Talbot.
There are currently just 4,100 external defibrillators in Wales – something which the Welsh Conservatives want to change quickly.
We want to see that number rapidly grow, which will in turn save more lives across Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives have long campaigned for action on defibrillators and CPR, and we will be building on our calls this week as the Senedd returns.
We will be leading a debate in the chamber today calling on the Labour-run Welsh Government to give community halls, sports grounds and independent shops the financial support to buy and install a defibrillator.
As well as calling for increased funding, we will be urging the Senedd to recognise that a network of defibrillators will save lives.
Defibrillators come with a rather hefty price tag. The normal cost is between £800 and £2,500 which is a lot of money for a small sports club or organisation to pay.
We believe Labour ministers should, at the very least, subsidise some of the cost or provide loans so that businesses, community groups and sports clubs can purchase the defibrillators.
Defibrillators are normally found in workplaces, airports, shopping centres, train stations and community centres, but we need more of them if we are going to save more lives.
According to the Resuscitation Council, the public needs to be within 200 metres of a defibrillator.
Many charities, sports teams and communities have rallied together and bought defibrillators, but not all of them are available 24/7 and 365 days a year because clubs have to close at times.
Sports teams have seasons, shops and pubs aren’t open all of the time, and that means that the defibrillator that people think is near enough, may not be accessible.
We need to increase the number of usable defibrillators because they simply save lives.
Survival of cardiac arrest in Wales is the lowest of the United Kingdom nations. We have a survival rate of just 4.6%, which is more than half that of England’s 9.4%.
Having the lowest survival rate, alongside poor ambulance waiting times and mammoth backlogs for treatment, means that having quick access to defibrillators where the people of Wales go is vital.
Welsh Conservatives were successful earlier this year in getting the teaching of life-saving skills such as CPR added into Wales’ new curriculum, and we hope this week’s motion will help us build on that success.
Cardiac arrests are often sudden and come without symptoms. They do not discriminate, they can happen to the healthy, unhealthy, old or the young.
Every life is precious and by providing quick access to defibrillators, better CPR awareness and increasing confidence in the Welsh public on providing CPR, we can save lives.
Politicians of all colours across the Senedd are as one on this issue, so I hope they throw their support behind this Welsh Conservative motion and help us make Wales a safer place.
Tom Giffard MS
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Sport, Tourism and Culture
