Defibrillator ‘torn apart beyond repair’ is to be replaced by supplier

A DEFIBRILLATOR damaged beyond repair outside a local soccer club over the weekend is set to be replaced by its original supplier.

John O’Regan, the chairman of College Corinthians AFC, based in Douglas, described the damage done to the defibrillator and its cabinet on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM yesterday.

He explained that the broken defibrillator, found on Saturday morning by the club’s caretaker, had been ripped out of its cabinet and “torn apart”.

“The defibrillator was on the ground, torn apart so it’s beyond repair. We couldn’t believe actually that the glass case was smashed, we think probably with a concrete block or something like that,” he said.

Mr O’Regan said that, unfortunately, there were no cameras at the club that could have detected the culprit but said that neighbours in the Donnybrook community have been very supportive since the incident occurred.

The defibrillator was one of three donated to the club by club president and chief executive of Irish Mainport Holdings Dave Ronayne who received them from Mallow-based EireMed.

“Most clubs fundraise for one [defibrillator] and we were lucky to get three so we made a conscious decision to place one outside the gates because we have very good neighbours and there’s a big growing community in Donnybrook and Castletreasure,” Mr O’Regan said.

Following advice from the Irish Heart Foundation to keep the cabinet with the defibrillator accessible to the public with a code, Mr O’Regan said that the decision was made not to lock the cabinet to ensure that anyone in need could use the device.

“We placed it at the front entrance outside the gate and made them all aware by giving flyers through the letterboxes, making them aware that the defibrillator was in place and there’s an access code visible on the outside so it was easily accessible.

“We’ve had great offers of support from the local community. People are appalled at what has gone on and are looking to help out,” Mr O’Regan said, before Kieran Egan of EireMed, the original suppliers of the medical device, rang the show saying he would replace the defibrillator and cabinet free of charge in the coming days.

Mr Egan also highlighted that out of the thousands of defibrillators accessible to the public across the country, a tiny fraction are ever interfered with and reiterated that they are important devices to have as they “save lives every day”.