News / millenium square
Family launch Bristol defibrillator crowdfunder after son’s death
A family are raising funds to install a public access defibrillator in Millennium Square after the death of their son earlier this year.
Sam Polledri, who was 24 at the time, died of a cardiac arrest in Millennium Square on February 26 this year.
After Sam’s death, the family set up a foundation in his name, with the help of Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, and are now crowdfunding to install public access defibrillators across Bristol.
is needed now More than ever
“Sam was such a loving, kind and caring young man. He absolutely loved life, was so happy, loved his family, girlfriend and friends so much,” said Sam’s family.
“In his honour we are raising funds to install a public access defibrillator in Millennium Square, Bristol, close to where he passed. To save other lives in Sam’s name, he would want us to do this.
“There was no wall mounted/registered defibrillators near Sam, he wasn’t given the chance to survive.”
Defibrillation within the first few minutes of having a sudden cardiac arrest, increases the chance of survival, to over 70 per cent, according to St John Ambulance.
In 2019 Bristol had 107 public access defibrillators, 23 for every 100,000, whilst Swansea had 349, a rate of 141 per 100,000 people, according to data published from CE Safety at the time.
“All money raised through the Sam Polledri Foundation, through the GWAAC, will fund public access defibrillators, ensuring that anyone who suffers an out of hospital cardiac arrest has someone nearby who knows how to perform CPR and has an AED within a 3 minute walk,” said the family.
They are also hoping to install a second one at the Downs on the wall of the cafe.
On Friday, June 29, Sam’s family are holding an event to celebrate the launch of a new public access defibrillator in Millennium Square. The family will be joined by Heartstarters volunteers, and members of the GWAAC crew to teach CPR. The event starts at 11am.
In the UK, over a third (38 per cent) of adults still haven’t learned CPR, and whilst first aid training is available in most schools in the UK, it is not compulsory.
Leading health organisations are concerned that this figure is leading to preventable deaths from cardiac arrest, with some arguing that compulsory first aid training in schools could marginally reduce the number of cardiac arrests in the UK.
In the UK there are over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) a year where emergency medical services attempt to resuscitate the victim, according to the official government website.
However, the survival rate is low – just one in ten people in the UK survive an OHCA. The more awareness surrounding public access defibrillators and an increase in locations will help increase the rate of survival.
Main photo: HeartSafe
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