The Rotary Club of Kiama is continuing their history of working to improve residents’ health with a project that aims to give people an easy way to find a defibrillator in an emergency, and install defibrillators where they are needed.

The leader of the project, Graham Tweedie, who has had his life saved twice by a defibrillator, has compiled a list of the locations of all public, 24 hour defibrillators in the LGA.

As our contribution to the initiative, we’ve added a new section to our Community page on The Bugle App - 24 Hour Defibrillator sites, so that you will have access to this list in an emergency. It lists them in closest to your location order, and includes a map and picture of the location.

The Rotary Club has already donated a defibrillator for the Sebel Harbourside carpark entrance off Shoalhaven Street. The machine now sits in clear view from Black Beach, a site that often holds community markets of up to 3,000 people and even larger events.

Kiama Rotary President Carol Jagger, project leader Graham Tweedie and general manager of the Sebel Craig Hardy, with Kiama's latest defibrillator in the background

This is only a start, with their goal to launch a fundraising project that will see the installation of defibrillators to all sites in the LGA that are in need of one.

“You have minutes to respond to a cardiac event and those are precious minutes. The faster you are able to administer a defibrillator, if that’s the appropriate thing to do, the more chance you’ve got of saving that individual’s life,” says Kiama Rotary’s John Clarke.

“Greg Page from the Wiggles is running The Heart of the Nation initiative, which aims to have every Australian within one minute of a defibrillator. It is an impressive goal, but it shows the importance of these machines and the knowledge of where they are.”

Kiama Rotary is now looking to target businesses who have a defibrillator indoors. They will urge owners to explore ways of making their defibrillator available 24 hours a day or place signage outside revealing they have one available during opening hours.

The defibrillators come with easy to use instructions

​​“Defibrillators on the premises are wonderful during business hours, but people have cardiac arrests at any time of the day. If there is a 24 hour one in the community, someone could run and grab it in the time they have rung tripe zero, just to start the ball rolling,” Graham says.

“It is important for people to understand that every person in the community has a potential to have a sudden cardiac arrest from an electrical problem, you don’t have to have blocked arteries to have one. My cardiac arrest came out of the blue.”

A project titled, ‘I can CPR’, is also being explored by the Rotary Club in an effort to bring members of the community up-to-speed with current CPR techniques.

“It is important for everyone to know a bit of CPR. While someone races to get the defibrillator off the wall, someone will need to start compressions on the chest,” Graham says.

“My wife has done CPR on me with the defibrillator coming in a few minutes later to save me. It all works in combination.”

To discuss this project or to explore how to become a Rotary Club member, contact President of Kiama Rotary, Carol Jagger at [email protected]