Case Study: Andy - "CPR and a defibrillator can give someone the best possible chance of surviving"

Andy McKeen is a volunteer instructor with Heartstart Ayrshire and Arran and has campaigned to improve access to public access defibrillators (PADs) in his local community. His work has helped establish eight PAD sites, making defibrillators more accessible to people in the area. 

Many of these sites were made possible through East Ayrshire Council’s Defibrillators for Communities scheme. The scheme has supported community groups through donations of defibrillators and cabinets, with around 80 provided through community benefit arrangements. Funding has also been secured to help community groups replace defibrillator pads and batteries, helping to reduce the ongoing maintenance burden. 

Andy has also worked to raise awareness of where defibrillators are located, recently producing lamppost stickers highlighting local defibrillator locations, CPR training resources, and the GoodSAM app.

Andy continued: “That is why making communities aware of their local PADs, alongside giving people the confidence to perform CPR, is so important.” 

He has seen first-hand the difference this combination of CPR and early defibrillation can make. Ian, a man in his early 80s, experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a supermarket in Irvine. He received CPR from bystanders and shocks from a defibrillator that Andy had helped fundraise for at his business premises just months earlier. 

“Knowing that a defibrillator I had helped bring to the community was there when Ian needed it was incredibly rewarding,” Andy said. “His story is a powerful reminder that CPR and a defibrillator can give someone the best possible chance of surviving a cardiac arrest.”