Enhanced First Aid facilities required at local races?

Following on from the incident at the Cobh race, John Quigley of Eagle AC sent out the following e-mail to Eagle AC members. As it is such an important subject, I have reprinted it here with John's permission. Please read it...

Hi All

Two incidents in the last 10 days have raised awareness of the some risks associated with organising races.

The first was the collapse and subsequent death of Gerry Mullane, Bilboa AC, last saturday week. Gerry collapsed at the mile mark in a race and was subsequently placed on life support. He died last Monday.

On Friday night, following the Cobh 5k, Gerry Lawton, Belgooly AC, collapsed several minutes after finishing. Gerry was given CPR by Midleton's Noel O'Regan and quick thinking by Michael Dooley and others came up with a defribilator from Cobh Taxis and Oxygen from the Fire Brigade. Thankfully Gerry is recovering well in the CUH.

It is clear that we need to have medical personnel at all races from now on, and an ambulance at any race where significant numbers (to be decided/debated) attending.

I believe that we now must have a defibrilator available at ALL races, along with trained personnel (and I mean US!!). I suggest that between the AAI and BHAA, we need a minimum of 1 unit, should have at least one per organisation and possibly need three to 4 in total. I understand that the BHAA are already debating the issue. Cork AAI has previously discussed and rejected the idea of getting one. I think its time for the AAI to revisit the matter and will be raising the issue withe the AAI before and at the next meeting.

These units cost approx. €2500 each. They are relatively dear but if any of our loved ones required one of these units, we'd be shoving money at anyone with one!

Tomorrow morning I intend to look into getting hold of these one way or another. I reckon we should be able to get someone to sponsor these and I'm asking everyone to actively seek sponsorship, either full or part, for these units. Failing that, between the AAI & BHAA, clubs and individual subscription, we MUST have them asap. Many of us will have to undergo training - I'd say as many as possible. We also need to set up a contact protocol to ensure, at races, that word quickly reaches the medics if someone collapses out the course.

I don't think having an ambulance and, at a minimum, medics, along with a defribilator, is an option any more. It is now a must and I think permits should only be granted for races with this cover.

We all need to push this with both the AAI (in particular) and the BHAA - bring it up with them at every opportunity - that should ensure that it gets done NOW.

John Quigley (Eagle AC)

So, what do you think? Are you trained in the use of a defribillator? Do you know of any that are surplus?.../not being used? If you want to contact John, then send an e-mail to me (shown on the right of this page) and I'll pass on the info.

If you just want to comment on John's e-mail, use the Comment link below.