The Podcast of Steel: Episode 67 — How telephone boxes are saving lives

I’m not sure how many times over the years Clark Kent has used a phone box / booth to transform into Superman but I know it’s a lot!

Once upon a time you would see the iconic red phone box on every street corner in the UK. These days everyone has a mobile phone so sadly they are not needed as much. I feel this is a real shame as I love that bright red exterior and I would hate them to disappear.

Thanks to the Community HeartBeat Trust though they are helping to keep their memory alive in the most heroic way, by using them to store life-saving defibrillators. 

Defibrillators (also known as AEDs) are medical devices that help and support a rescue for a  patient in Cardiac Arrest. They achieve this by applying a current of electricity across the heart to stop it, allowing it to reconfigure automatically. Defibrillators are not “Heart Re-starters” — any sign indicating this is wrong!

Death from Cardiac Arrest if untreated is about 97 percent of cases. With the correct and rapid treatment, survival to hospital can, in theory, be raised to around the 70 percent mark, but this assumes rapid action, good CPR (Chest compressions) and also the timely use of a defibrillator.

Recently I spoke with CHT on an episode of The Podcast Of Steel as I wanted to know more about this great organisation of heroes.

I was joined by Martin Fagan (the national secretary of CHT) and Tom Bowtell (the CEO of BCF, who help out with the organisation in a big way).

We talked all about the history of the organisation and why the work they are doing with communities is so important. 

We can all be heroes without the superpowers when we start working together and being a strong community. We can be our own Justice League!

This post was originally published on The Geek of Steel website.