A FOUR-year-old girl’s life was saved by the chairman of the Droitwich AED after she went into cardiac arrest in the late hours of Tuesday evening.
Peter Richards arrived at the scene with the AED he kept in his car and attended to the girl, who has a heart condition, until an ambulance arrived.
Her mum said: “The ambulance arrived after Pete, and my husband was looking after her, and they had confirmed that if the two had not acted the way they did, it would have been a very different story – a very different conversation.
“They were both working very hard to save my daughter’s life.”
With cardiac arrests, the first few minutes are crucial in saving a life.
Modest Peter told the Standard: “I did not do anything special – I just brought the defibrillator.
“It was the dad who started CPR at the right time – the mum who ran across the road while calling an ambulance to get me.
“They saved their little girl.”
Peter also noted that, luckily, the girl’s father was with her when she fell into cardiac arrest – otherwise, no-one would have known it was happening.
Also present and helping at the scene was a Dr Pettit, who lives nearby.
In 2017, Peter set up Droitwich AED after noting defibrillators were not publicly accessible or in close range to everyone in Droitwich.
The charity has now provided 125 AEDs across Worcester, Malvern, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Redditch and Evesham, as well as Droitwich.
Peter is calling for additional funding to help get more AEDs and to cover maintenance costs which take a significant amount of cash from the charity’s pocket each year.
To ensure they are maintained and accessible when a person is in crisis, Droitwich AED also has guardians who check the defibrillators in their own area each month.
But with some volunteer shortages, more guardians are needed to ensure defibrillators are ready to be used when required.
The four-year-old girl is still receiving care at BCH.
Email [email protected] for more on Droitwich AED, becoming a guardian, or to donate money.
