Following on from their meeting with the Prime Minister in March, the campaign started by the West Bridgford Colts to make community defibrillators more affordable gets another boost as Ruth Edwards secured an adjournment debate in the commons chamber this week.
Those following the campaign will know that the Colts have been petitioning for greater access for defibrillators by cutting costs after the tragic passing of one of their U17 stars, Dylan Rich, who passed away after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest during a youth game.
Ruth suggested several options to cut costs including; multiple options around VAT relief such as zero rate VAT or setting up a fund for community groups to claim back VAT on defibrillators.
During the debate, Ruth made the clear case for the need to increase access to defibrillators in the Commons chamber, stating: “on average, a person in the UK has an 8% chance of surviving a cardiac arrest if it happens out of hospital. This is vastly increased, to as high as 70%, if a defibrillator is used within the first three to five minutes of the cardiac arrest occurring.
Conversely, survival rates drop by 10% for every minute of delay after this time”
Sadly, Dylan’s story is not an isolated incident.
In the last year in Nottinghamshire there has been the case of assistant referee Andrew Jarvis, who survived a cardiac arrest suffered while officiating a game in Mansfield last August, and also 13-year-old Samuel Akwasi collapsed from a cardiac arrest during a Young Elizabethan Football League game and tragically later died in the Queen’s Medical Centre.
Even more tragically in the case of Sam, the club he was playing against was the West Bridgford Colts.
Ruth said “Sudden Cardiac Arrest can suddenly tear through the life of any family with devastating results. I am delighted by the energy and commitment the Government has shown to working on this issue and I hope we can now agree on the best way forward and give it the green light so that we can get on with delivering these lifesaving changes.”
Lucy Frazer, the answering minister from the Treasury said “I am grateful to the Member for Rushcliffe for all of the hard work she has done to bring this to the public attention. As we remember Dylan, the Prime Minister has asked the Department of Health and Social Care about how we can best expand public access to defibrillators”.
