Lifeline for Stourton (From Salisbury Journal)

Lifeline for Stourton

4:30pm Thursday 26th August 2010 in News By Annie Riddle

A VILLAGE phone box will provide a new kind of lifeline for residents, housing a portable defibrillator.

The idea came up after an ambulance took an hour to reach a Stourton resident who had a heart attack.

Stourton with Gasper Parish Council, which recently adopted the kiosk from BT and is planning to renovate it, is being given a £965 grant by the South West Wiltshire area board to enable the project to go ahead.

The board heard that access to the emergency services is poor in Stourton, with ambulances generally taking 40 to 45 minutes to reach the remote community.

The public access defibrillator (PAD) will be available 24 hours a day, and people will need no specialist training to use it.

They will simply dial 999, the operator will issue a key code to unlock the machine and send out an air ambulance at the same time, while the machine itself will talk the user through how to operate it.

The PAD could increase survival rates for heart attack victims by up to 80 per cent, the board heard.

The National Trust will be contributing to the £1,730 cost of buying and installing the equipment, and local fundraising will pay for the running costs.

Other grants approved by the board on Wednesday (August 25) included: £700 to buy equipment for Mere Dazzlers majorettes; £2,000 for Mere Croquet and Boules Club to help build a petanque court and provide a ramp for disabled people; £2,308 for disabled facilities at Zeals Village Hall, and £1,562 towards the cost of Tisbury’s Tis The Season Christmas festivities.