TOWNS ACROSS Ireland are combining culture with creative health initiatives in a bid to save lives.
Iconic old-Irish Telefón boxes are being repurposed into Automatic External Defibrilators (AED) in a forward-thinking way of preserving history.
The old phone box draws people in with its quirky, old-timey colours and lettering, but rather than a classic phone, inside is life-saving defibrillator equipment with introductions on how to use it.
Killarney's Main Street Telefón Defibrillator (Hearty of Ireland/ Facebook)The idea for the phone-box AED began in Killarney, with Main Street’s Telefón being transformed, and now the towns of Stoneybatter in Dublin and Killybegs in Donegal are the most recent communities to have followed suit.
AED organisation ‘Heart of Killarney’ introduced the phone box defibrillator to assist in their goal of Killarney becoming the most ‘heart safe’ town in Ireland.
The orgnisation got the idea by recognising that in the old days, the public Telefóns were the lifeline which kept families together, and now they can continue to do so by housing the life-saving devices.
Now the initiative has gained momentum and has encouraged town across Ireland to invest in Telefón defibrillators through its Facebook page, Heart of Ireland.
The more AEDs available in public spaces the better: should a person suffer cardiac arrest while out and about, their chances of survival decline by approximately 10% with each minute that passes without defibrillation and CPR.
This initiative will serve to raise public awareness while also increasing the chances of survival for cardiac arrest victims.
Countless lives could be saved by the unique idea.
