Heartsafety Solutions recently celebrated its 20th anniversary as one of Ireland’s leading suppliers of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), AED storage units and accessories. The company was established in 2006 by David Greville, managing director, who at the time was working as a firefighter/paramedic with Dublin Fire Brigade.
He says that he realised that by the time paramedics arrived at the scene of a sudden cardiac arrest, very often it was all too late. “For every minute that CPR and defibrillation is delayed, this reduces the victim’s chance of survival,” Greville tells ‘Emergency Services Ireland’.
He wanted to place Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in places where there was a higher likelihood of cardiac arrest. “This would, therefore, reduce the response time to within a couple of minutes, whereby bystanders could use the nearby AED to save the life of a co-worker or teammate,” he adds.
Since then, Heartsafety Solutions has been responsible for setting up the largest AED programmes in the country, including the GAA National Defibrillator programme and the FAI Grassroots Defibrillator programme.
“The AEDs that we supply save around 15 lives every year. However, training is also very important as bystanders can be reluctant to help, unless they have received training in CPR and using an AED.” On the day of their 20th birthday, he recalls that the Heartsafety Solution team learned that one of their AEDs had been used to save the life of a teenage boy in the Leinster area. “What could be a better birthday present than that?” he asks.
