Life-saving defibrillator installed at Shrewsbury cafe after customer tragedy
A cafe in Shrewsbury has taken delivery of a life-saving defibrillator following the death of a customer.
A member of the public died after suffering a cardiac arrest at Stop. Coffee Shop in St Julian Friars earlier this year.
Owner Nicola Dalton wanted something positive to come from the incident and began inquiring about purchasing a defibrillator.
She was put in touch with the Telford First Responders co-ordinator and chairman, Nick Freeman, who was more than happy to help.
"It was great to be able to give the good news of obtaining an automated external defibrillators to the staff who witnessed the incident which was nice," Nicola said.
"It’s a positive thing to have come out of a very sad situation and while I hope that this defibrillator is never used, it’s reassuring to know that it’s there should an emergency arise again.”
The defibrillator will initially only be accessible during the cafe's opening times but Nicola is hoping to install a secure cabinet outside the building so it is accessible 24 hours a day.
Nick added: “As it happens, we had one spare automated external defibrillator after obtaining a lottery grant last year for our Community First Responder (CFR) scheme to replace our own AEDs, so I offered to gift it to this good cause.
“While slightly out of our patch, we work closely with local Shrewsbury First Responders and our scheme was only too happy to help support the community to further improve cardiac arrest survival.”
