Hansard

My dear friend Carl Reavey died of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in January 2018. He was 61. Carl was a force of nature and his sudden shocking death impacted on the many people who had the great fortune to know him. This debate is in Carl’s memory and is for all those who have lost loved ones as a result of cardiac arrest. It is also in recognition of the work of communities across Scotland, including in my constituency of Argyll and Bute, who have raised funds, completed training and helped to save lives through installation of defibrillators.

I thank members from all sides of the chamber who have supported the motion. We are in the privileged position of being able to help to raise awareness of the work that the British Heart Foundation is doing alongside the Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS Scotland and Microsoft, in establishing the Circuit—Scotland’s first network of defibrillators.

I never met my maternal grandfather—he died of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 1964. Back then, there was only a vague understanding of the processes that underlie heart disease. Doctors could not do much; they simply let nature take its course. Since then, the Scottish death rate from heart and circulatory diseases has declined by more than three quarters, but for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests—there are about 3,200 in Scotland every year—the survival rate is only 10 per cent. The figures are stark: every minute without cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by 10 per cent.

The Scottish Government’s document “Scotland’s Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021-2026” aims for

“20% of ... cardiac arrests”

to

“have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance”

arrives. Research suggests that that means having a defibrillator situated every 200m in urban areas, and having one for every 1,000 people in rural areas, so it is quite a target to reach.

Cairndow, around the head of Loch Fyne in Argyll and Bute, has three community defibrillators. Two are community funded, and one is funded by a local business. Last year, one was deployed when a visitor fell ill in a remote part of the community. The response was exceptional. The British Heart Foundation had provided two basic life-support training sessions in the Cairndow village hall. The first person to arrive on the scene had attended that training and commenced manual CPR, while directing someone else to get the nearest defibrillator and raise the alarm. The air ambulance, an ambulance crew and police all attended, and the community defibrillator was applied before the services arrived.

That community response was made possible by British Heart Foundation training, locally funded defibrillators and good community awareness. The next day, the defibrillator pads were replaced by private community donations in order to keep the defibrillator in service. Without individuals donating or communities fundraising, the defibrillators will not be there, and so the Scottish Government’s target might be difficult to achieve.

My motion notes that more could be done. I have two suggestions, although I am sure that many more could be made. By using building planning regulations, could new developments be mandated to put in a defibrillator cabinet? Following on from my question in the chamber in response to last week’s budget, could the Scottish Government campaign for a removal of, or reduction in, VAT on defibrillators?

I started my speech by remembering Carl Reavey. Carl’s life was action packed. He was a sound engineer with The Undertones, a bird watcher, a photographer, an editor, a hotelier, a promoter of whisky and a cyclist. He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father and a friend. Carl’s smile and laughter lit up the room, but an electrical malfunction in his heart forced the life from him. Jan, his wife, was alone with him when it happened. She dialled 999. She administered CPR, having been told not to stop until the ambulance arrived. She could not leave him. No one knew to get the village defibrillator. Registering a community defibrillator on the Circuit might help in circumstances like that, so please—please—do it.

I finish with the words on the memorial for Carl in the community woodland that he and I worked together to establish:

“A lover of nature
By nature good natured
By nature a friend
A lover of a dram (naturally)
By nature a thinker
By nature a doer
A force of nature”

I simply ask, on behalf of Jan, that we lose no more forces of nature simply because a defibrillator is not registered on the Circuit.