A Wiltshire club has raised funds to install a second defibrillator after a Dutch player’s life was saved from their clubhouse machine.
Arno Van Oorstehout, of Alecto HC in the Netherlands, suffered a cardiac arrest during a match at Chippenham Sports Club in September.
Like many clubs, defibs are positioned in or by the clubhouse — and this was the case at Chippenham with players retrieving it to then save his life but not before having to ask for the code from the locked cabinet.
Chippenham’s appeal for a second defibrillator took two days to hit its £2,000 target.
The campaign was launched following concerns that there could be delays in providing lifesaving treatment in the future.
Fiona Wheadon, the club’s general manager, said that the player “suddenly collapsed”.
“The first person got to him thinking that he only passed out, but realised he had no pulse,” she said.
“So we realised he had gone into cardiac arrest and very quickly started CPR.
“If the new location of a second defibrillator could be right next to the pitch it would mean that it could have been retrieved within thirty seconds, as opposed to three to five minutes,” she said.
She also praised the Chippenham community from the mti sport sections at the club.
In September, the club had raised £2,560 from their defib crowdfund.
All additional funds raised will go towards the Wiltshire air ambulance, having supported the wife of the patient’s accommodation while he received life saving surgery in the UK as he was too ill to travel back to the Netherlands
All remaining funds will go towards our new sports community project to replace the Air-dome and “massively improve the facilities”.
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