Defibrillator vandalised at busy Mayo area
London, UK- July 19, 2021: Defibrillator attached to the wooden wall in a park. An AED is a device that checks the heart's rhythm and sends a shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm.
The defibrillator at the summit of Croagh Patrick is out of commission due to vandalism.
Darren Forde, the creator of the Eco Powered Cabinets which stow defibrillators, woke up at 4:30 on the morning of December 3 to investigate reports of damage to the defibrillator at the top of Mayo’s holy mountain.
Forde braved the frost and climbed Croagh Patrick. When he reached the summit, he found that the door of the unit had been “bashed open with a stone.”
Forde told Midwest, “They took out the defibrillator and took the pads out of the back of it.”
It is believed that the incident took place sometime between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.
This is not the first time vandals have damaged a defibrillator in Mayo in the past few months.
“The units … had been used three times since the installation and brought three people back,” Forde said in an interview with Tommy Marren.
The damaged defibrillator has been brought to Westport Garda Station and Gardai are investigating.
Forde assures that the emergency unit will be replaced but the process will be expensive and complicated. For now, the unit is out of order.
The public is being advised that the defibrillators at the cone and the foot of Croagh Patrick are still available for use.
