DR ROB GALLOWAY: The life-saving £600 gadget I believe every home should have

For many of us, New Year means resolutions: new habits to improve our health and live longer.

But unfortunately, studies show that many of us have already stopped making good life plans in the first week of January, because we find it too difficult to stick to our good intentions.

In fact, there is one simple solution you can undertake that requires minimal effort and could truly save your life. It's something I've decided to do before 2024 – and that's buy a defibrillator to keep at home.

A defibrillator is a device that delivers a life-saving electric shock to someone who has suffered cardiac arrest.

My family and friends' reactions to my plan ranged from “What a waste of money” to “Why do you want to turn your house into a hospital?” But after I explained it, they all ended up buying one for their own homes and businesses.

Buying a defibrillator may be the most important decision you ever make – for yourself or for someone else.

Every year, 30,000 Britons suffer a cardiac arrest, where the heart's electricity malfunctions and the heart stops beating. Unless the heart can be restarted, death quickly follows.

Currently, less than 10 percent survive. But that could rise to 70 percent – ​​if there were easy access to defibrillators. This could save up to 18,000 lives a year in Britain.

Many cardiac arrests are caused by a heart attack, which is due to a lack of blood flow to the heart muscle. This problem starts with damage to the blood vessels in the heart, caused by factors such as high cholesterol, lack of exercise and obesity.

About 15 percent of heart attacks lead to cardiac arrest because the part of the heart that gets damaged is the electrical circuitry.

The other main cause of cardiac arrest is electrical problems in the heart – often due to genetic causes and in apparently healthy people in their teens to thirties. Last month, Luton Town Football Club captain Tom Lockyer, 29, suffered cardiac arrest – believed to be due to an electrical fault in the heart – during a Premier League match.

Fortunately, he survived, thanks to the expertise of the medical teams. But in the end, it was the availability of a defibrillator that saved his life – a device that could have been used by anyone in the crowd without any medical knowledge (because the device gives you voice instructions on what to do).

Yet Tom's case was the exception. Many of my colleagues who work in the ambulance service see patients who would have survived if a member of the public had used a defibrillator – but by the time the ambulance arrived it was too late.

Then there are the patients I have seen who survived cardiac arrest thanks to paramedics and their defibrillators, but the initial delay before they arrived meant the patient suffered severe brain damage.

Only 5-10 percent of those who experience cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting survive.

There are only two things you need to do to save someone in these circumstances: immediately start CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and use a defibrillator as soon as possible.

If bystanders begin CPR, the chances of survival can increase two to four times. And if a defibrillator is used within three to five minutes of a collapse, the chances of survival increase to 50-70 percent.

But fewer than one in ten patients are treated with a defibrillator – also called an automated external defibrillator (AED) – before the ambulance arrives. This is the ultimate reason why survival is so poor.

We have the equivalent of one plane crash a week killing people from preventable deaths. Having defibrillators in all public places and homes could transform these statistics.

For the past ten years, together with St John Ambulance, I have been the medical lead at the American Express Stadium, home of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, where we have ten defibrillators, as well as large numbers of people (including stewards) trained in Resuscitation.

During that time, seven people in the crowd suffered cardiac arrest – and all survived with a good quality of life. This is not due to luck, but due to immediate CPR and access to a defibrillator.

However, on average we all live more than 700 meters from a defibrillator, which means it takes too long to get treatment and too many people die unnecessarily. Hence my New Year's resolution. And you don't have to be a professor of emergency medicine to use one, as no skill or training is required.

Crucially, they do not cause any damage, as they only return the heart to normal rhythm when it is abnormal. If the heart doesn't need it, the machine doesn't generate the charge for the shock.

Granted, defibrillators aren't cheap ($600 to $900 for a good quality device; they can also be rented) – but what price can we put on saving a life?

So why should you buy one? For the same reason you would buy a fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide detector, or life insurance: some purchases are for your peace of mind and are based on a risk-benefit analysis.

For example, in the case of a carbon monoxide detector, there is a cost of around £25, but a benefit, based on how useful the purchase is (nearly 100 percent in preventing deaths) and how often the risk occurs (30 deaths). per year in Great Britain).

With a defibrillator, the costs are higher and the equipment can increase the chances of survival by 70 percent. But deaths from cardiac arrest are a thousand times more common than from carbon monoxide. In terms of a risk-benefit analysis, defibrillators are three times more cost-effective than carbon monoxide detectors.

Of course, I'm not saying that carbon monoxide monitors aren't important; that is clearly the case.

But this is an argument against paying VAT on these life-saving devices as this would reduce their cost. Price is one of the biggest barriers to people buying defibrillators.

On December 20, St John Ambulance, the British Heart Foundation and the Red Cross came together with more than 100 colleagues and MPs to call for the abolition of VAT on defibrillators purchased by small businesses, charities and private owners.

This would reduce the price by around £100 to £200. A year ago the Irish government abolished this tax – and we should do the same in Britain.

In the meantime, consider purchasing a defibrillator for your home, community club or business; this may be the best investment you make.

NOTE: If you purchase a defibrillator, register it on the National Defibrillator Network so that ambulance services can direct people to a device nearby (thecircuit.uk).

@drrobgalloway