HARDEN councillors hope a new defibrillator will help keep people alive until paramedics can reach the village.
The parish council has bought a defibrillator with support from the Big Lottery and placed it on the wall of Harden Pharmacy.
The device can be easily used by anyone, including untrained members of the public, because it includes spoken and video instructions.
A council spokesman said: “Community Public Access Defibrillators (cPADs) are being installed across the UK in areas like Harden, where ambulance response times are longer than average.
“In Harden, just 54 per cent of life threatening calls are responded to within the eight-minute target response time.”
In the UK, around 75,000 people lose their lives due to sudden cardiac arrest every year, but swift access to defibrillation improves survival rates from less than three per cent to over 75 per cent.”
Anyone calling 999 from Harden will be directed to the unit if a cardiac arrest is suspected.
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