SOUTH HINKSEY Parish Council hopes a village defibrillator might save lives.

Chairwoman Maggie Rawcliffe wants tio see a unit installed because she feared emergency services could struggle to get to patients when the A34 is jammed with traffic.

The council has already raised almost £300 towards the £1,500 piece of medical equipment.

The machine, which can be operated by anyone, delivers an electric shock that can restart the heart of someone having a cardiac arrest.

Mrs Rawcliffe said: “This could benefit everybody in the community and potentially save lives.

“It is a good idea for any village, but sometimes the A34 can get so jammed and that is the only way for paramedics to get into South Hinksey.

“I don’t think there are many communities cut off like ours – the A34 on the one side, the railway on the other.”

The village plans to install the defibrillator in the porch of the village hall in Manor Road next April.

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Mrs Rawcliffe said that would place it as near to as many people in the village as possible.

Villagers will be able to operate the device themselves, with a recorded voice giving instructions on how to use it.

The idea was first suggested by parish councillor Liz LeFevre at the beginning of the summer. Since then, villagers Emmeline Bryant and Louisa Nahhas raised £283 towards it with table top sales in South Hinksey and at Wytham.

The council is now planning to set up an online justgiving.com page for parishioners to donate. It will also ask Vale of White Horse District Council for a contribution.

About 600 people die from coronary heart disease each year in Oxfordshire, according to the British Heart Foundation.

South Central Ambulance Service said there were about 527 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Oxfordshire in the year up to June 30, and every minute without CPR and defibrillation can reduce chances of survival by 10 per cent. South Central Ambulance Service divisional responder manager Dick Tracey said: “All you have to do is switch the machine on and it will get you through the process.

“It won’t let you shock someone who doesn’t need one.”

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