'I'm so thankful my friend saved my life with a defibrillator'

An elderly man who had a cardiac arrest at a Lancashire tennis club has praised his friend for "being willing and able to have a go" with a defibrillator that saved his life.

David Pearson, 85, said he was "thankful" there was a machine at Garstang Tennis Club "and the club itself had taken care of it and maintained it so it was in proper working order".

His friend Andrew Lockwood said when David collapsed in November "he looked completely out of it" and "I knew I had to do something".

The pair are backing a campaign to get thousands of unmaintained defibrillators back into use so they are ready in the event of an emergency.

Speaking about his collapse, David said: "I can't really remember, but what I've been told happened is that I was at the far end of the court, probably ready to send or receive, when I fell backwards.

He said: "I'm thankful for the fact that Andy was here and he was willing and able to have a go and do what needed to be done.

"And I'm thankful also that the ambulance service was so good over the phone in helping and supporting Andy as he was doing all this."

Andrew said: "I literally just saw him fall, I could see that he hadn't just tripped.

"He just fell straight backwards and cracked his head on the court."

He said a group of friends "went over in a bit of a panic as there was quite a bit of blood where his head hit the court".

"I could tell he wasn't really breathing, so someone called 999," he said.

"I knew I had to do something so I said I'd start CPR and somebody got the defibrillator then.

He said it was easy to use "because it gives you instructions".

"You open it up and it more or less tells you what to do," he said.

"There was still no sign of life, but then David did sort of make a noise, so we put the defibrillator on him and it shocked him.

"Four times it told us to shock him" he said, but he knew when he was "back" because "we could see that he was actually breathing".

North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said there are more than 11,000 publicly accessible defibrillators in the North West, but close to 3,000 are offline and no longer usable in an emergency.

This can be for several reasons, but often it is because there is no longer anyone responsible for the maintenance of the machines which can cost up to £1,300.

NWAS community resuscitation manager Cheryl Pickstock said: "People naturally think 'I know where the nearest defib is I'll be able to go and get it' but initially you've got to make that 999 call.

"One of the reasons we have a lot of defibrillators classed as offline is because people don't tell the national defibrillator network portal that the defibrillator is registered on that the defib is ok.

"It's really important that those regular checks are happening and that you are actually submitting those checks so that it remains on our 999 system."

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