SHU Helps Provide AEDs in Dingle, Ireland

Donors rally to deliver lifesaving devices to small, coastal town

Over the last few years, Sacred Heart University and SHU in Dingle have worked to make Dingle, Ireland, safer for its residents by providing automated defibrillators (AEDs) throughout the town.

Dingle townspeople live more than an hour away from emergency medical facilities, making it difficult to get immediate, lifesaving care. The residents are the same people who embrace SHU students studying at SHU’s Dingle campus and treat the Pioneers like family while they are away from home.

About two years ago, administration at SHU’s College of Health Professions devised a plan to help install much-needed AEDs around the remote tourist town. These are lightweight, portable devices used to treat people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. Combined with CPR, they are effective in saving lives, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The administrators applied for a grant to purchase AEDs for the town. They were unsuccessful, but their effort increased determination to get the devices.

Through networking and speaking with people whose lives were impacted by cardiac arrest, SHU administrators met Mike Papale, who has a nonprofit organization, In A Heartbeat. The organization raises awareness for sudden cardiac arrest, and Papale rallied donors to provide money to buy six external AEDs and two portable AEDs for Dingle.

Gary Delaney, executive director and company secretary for SHU in Dingle, said the equipment is top-of-the-line, with advanced technology that eliminates concern that it might be faulty or broken when needed. “The AEDs will run self-tests which, when combined with the external housing unit, will transmit relative data to a central monitoring station, which will report any anomalies or servicing requirements to the Dingle Heartsafe community group,” he said.

The Heartsafe group comprises Dingle residents who will be trained to administer CPR and use the AEDs. Delaney and many of his colleagues at SHU in Dingle are in Heartsafe. Training will be available to the wider community in December, thanks to a $13,000 donation that the College of Health Professions helped secure.

Delaney said the SHU community members are proud of what they have accomplished. “The residents feel safer knowing the devices are out there,” he said.

Pictured are Leonard Mangan, senior instructor at Critical Care Training, left, and Gary Delaney, executive director and company secretary for SHU in Dingle.