On March 27th Arklow Community First Responders like all Community First Responders nationwide were stood down from attending cardiac emergencies in their respective communities by The National Ambulance Service, this decision was made due to health, safety and welfare concerns for volunteers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At present we receive no notifications or information about emergencies within our community and this situation will unfortunately remain the same until we are given clearance to resume our duties.
The Covid-19 pandemic, HSE and government guidelines has left us unable to personally integrate with our community through our regular means of public CPR demonstrations and training courses, however we continue to promote our ethos that early recognition of Heart Attack, Stroke, Cardiac Arrest, early activation of emergency services along with early CPR and defibrillation will saves lives through our social media Facebook page.
HSE/Government Guidelines have also left us unable to conduct our monthly training in our normal fashion but we continue to train regularly through online means to keep our knowledge and skills honed and to be fully prepared for resumption of duties. We continue to maintain and check all of Arklow nine public access defibrillators on a regular basis and would encourage anyone witnessing or experiencing cardiac emergencies to avail of these 24/7 devices where possible without hesitation while making sure that the 999/112 emergency services have been activated in the first instance.
We look forward to the time when we can once again support our local community, the same community who have continually supported us so generously and unequivocally over the years. Until such time we thank everyone for their continued patience and support and would encourage everyone to follow HSE/Government guidelines in order to stay as safe and as healthy as possible.
Arklow First Responder John Summers also wished farewell to long serving member Una Kelly, who is taking a break after nine years with the group.
As one of our stalwarts and longest serving members has decided to hand in her Hi-Viz and take a well earned rest. Una Kelly has been a member of our group for over 9 years and through that time she’s spent endless hours on our weekly roster responding to Cardiac Emergencies in our community, instructing and teaching our responders and also responders throughout County Wicklow and beyond.
She spent three years as one of our first coordinators and through her tremdous hard work and determination layed the solid foundation that our group and ethos is build on today, her contribution to us and our community as a whole can not be over stated!
We’d like to take this opportunity to offer our sincerest Thanks and Appreciation to her and wish her every success and happiness into the future.
