A widow has urged for defibrillators to become a legal requirement in public places following the death of her 32-year-old husband from an undiagnosed heart condition. Kelly Best, from Cramlington, Northumberland, argues that the devices should be as commonplace as fire extinguishers, as 15 young people die each week from sudden cardiac arrests in the UK.
Her plea coincides with new data revealing stark geographical disparities in the availability of public access defibrillators (PADs). Swansea has 141 per 100,000 people, while Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city, has just two per 100,000. London boasts 5,304 PADs, compared to only 24 in Birmingham, according to Freedom of Information requests by health and safety firm CE Safety.
Neil Best, a fit and active father-of-two, collapsed at home in 2003 while running a bath. Kelly recalled: 'Neil was very quiet and laid back and he played football, rugby and golf and he was a great dad. He was fit and healthy. We were told it was “one of those things” and that it was his heart.' His sons, Joseph and Will, then aged eight and five, were later diagnosed as carriers of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Will received an internal pacemaker, which saved his life when he suffered a cardiac arrest at 19.
Kelly and her sister-in-law Christine Stephenson founded the charity North East Hearts with Goals, which installs defibrillators in schools, community centres, and pubs across the North East. Kelly said: 'My husband was just 32 when he died and he could have been saved by a defibrillator. They offer reassurance for anyone with a heart condition, which often people don’t know about, and they save lives.' She added that for every minute without a defibrillator, survival chances drop by 10%.
Currently, there is no legal requirement for defibrillators in public buildings, unlike fire extinguishers. Many devices are donated or provided by charities. The UK has no routine NHS screening for heart conditions unless there has been a young sudden death in the family. Sudden cardiac arrest claims 100,000 lives annually in the UK, making it the biggest killer.
