Mojácar Local Police Patrol With Defibrillators in Their Vehicles

Mojácar Local Police officers are carrying out their patrol services with defibrillators in their vehicles.  The headquarters has acquired two pieces of equipment and the officers have been trained in Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation.

Mojácar Local Police is one of the first of the province’s police forces to carry these life-saving devices, that provide the municipality with greater safety, during their patrol services.  One more example of their commitment to citizens and the duty of assistance they provide on a daily basis.

Mojácar Council Security councillor, María Luisa Pérez, emphasizes that the provision of these two defibrillators to the Mojácar Local Police Headquarters will mean a before and after in the safety and assistance work provided by officers in this Levante Almería municipality.

It was in June that the officers received the relevant training given by Advanced Life Support instructors from the company Sanur Emergencias with extensive experience in training and assistance in health emergencies. The concepts which they explained during the day are based on the recommendations of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC), which are those accepted by the National Plan for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (RCP)

The aim of the training is for the students to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities for performing Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation and obtain the corresponding accreditation for the use of the defibrillator, which is now another tool for their work.

There is evidence that the majority of sudden deaths have a cardiac origin and that the highest percentage of survivors is in the group where Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation are applied properly and early, including as essential steps the immediate activation of the Health Emergencies System, the correct identification of cardiorespiratory arrest.

In these cases the participation of the first responders is essential. Local Police officers are on numerous occasions the first to arrive at the scene of the emergency. Until now, their action in the event of a cardiorespiratory arrest was limited to alerting the emergency services, and in the best possible scenario, initiating basic life support consisting of mouth-to-mouth ventilation and external cardiac massage until the arrival of the advanced life support teams. However, the appearance of automated external defibrillators, electro-health devices capable of analysing heart rhythm and of recognising the presence or absence of ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, has made scientific societies, together with public administrations, promote the use of these devices by duly qualified, non-healthcare personnel, who find themselves in similar situations. The objective is that they can use defibrillation immediately while the emergency services are on their way.