It is safe to say that having been involved with a number of significant programmes over the last few years, one of the most important projects we have been involved in from the outset has been around the delivery of free defibrillators to the South Asian Cricketing Community (SACC) in England and Wales. In partnership with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), The Club Cricket Charity (CCC) and The Community Heartbeat Trust (CHT) we have collectively been the driving force behind this initiative since 2018/2019 in ensuring as many defibrillators as possible reach traditional cricket clubs as well as the south Asian cricketing set ups.
With an initial investment of £100,000.00 from the ECB in 2018/2019 for the SACC and a further £100,000.00 funding this year we have now administered, helped distribute and supported CPR and defibrillator training through the CHT. To date across both cricketing communities some 450 clubs have received defibrillators from CHT, with another 700 in the pipeline.
Last month in Birmingham we had a very real and stark reminder to the value of having a defibrillator on hand, where the timely intervention and availability of a defibrillator from our programme ultimately saved a life.
Club captain Philip Swann stated “On 21st August 2021, Bridge Trust CC were playing Withshaw CC. The weather had been pretty miserable, and rain. By early afternoon the rain had stopped, and play commenced, but only 20 overs per side, which by the nature of Cricket made the play more dynamic. Withshaw won the toss and batted first.
In the 19th over, nearing the end of the innings, the captain, David, hit a 6, and immediately collapsed on the wicket. Members of the teams commenced CPR and the groundsman, Ian Allmark, who observed the incident, collected the defibrillator from the clubhouse (supplied as part of the NACC, ECB, CCC, & CHT), and applied this to David. Ian was a trained first aider through work, and took charge of the situation, directing CPR and using the defibrillator. In total 3 shocks were applied, before a positive outcome was achieved.”
In addition to Ian, there were two other first aiders, once from each team, who took it in turn to undertake the chest compressions. Two ambulances attended, along with a HeliMed Doctor by road. The cricket pitch is in a triangle between 3 railway lines, and so access to the field had to be across the active railway by stopping the trains whilst the ambulances attended. The patient was stabilised by the attending ambulance crews, and was taken to City Hospital. The following morning, David was sitting up in bed, smiling, wanting to know the final score!
The attending ambulance crews, and the hospital doctor stated that had there not been quick action with CPR and the use of the defibrillator, he would have died. David now has 2 stents and an implantable defibrillator.
This site was one identified by the ACP Cricket League who use the site on Sundays, Zhor Malik, from the National Asian Cricket council said “Many thanks to the ECB, CCC and the CHT as well as to the NACC defibrillator committee for their support in placing defibrillators at clubs. Without this programme, David would have died”.
By the end of this year we would have administered the delivery and in some cases training of close to 200 defibrillators. We are pleased that on this occasion through Zhor Malik we were able to have a defibrillator on site when it was most needed. We also encourage and support the sharing of defibrillators where possible between the SACC especially when hiring playing facilities from traditional clubs, thus showing clear development of partnerships, integration and ultimately bringing the cricketing family closer.
We currently have a small amount of defibrillators remaining from the current programme and for further information on how to acquire a free defibrillator please contact us on – info@nacc.co
