Posted: 9 January 2012

The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust has invested in the purchase of six potentially life-saving defibrillators for use and access across Centennial Parklands.

“We estimate more than 12 million visits are made each year to Centennial Parklands. As a major sports and cultural destination in Sydney last year alone we hosted around 540,000 registered sports users across the Parklands and more than 207,000 event patrons,” said Kim Ellis, Director and Chief Executive of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust.

“We may be improving lives through promoting a healthy lifestyle, but now we are helping to hopefully save lives as well.”

“In recent years a small number of sports patrons and other park visitors have experienced cardiac arrests – some with tragic outcomes. Defibrillation within three minutes of a sudden cardiac arrest can increase the victim’s chance of survival from 5% to over 70%, so this made the purchase a simple decision to make,” said Mr Ellis.

“The defibrillators are lightweight, easy to activate and all of our staff have been trained in their use. Even untrained park visitors can use them simply in an emergency situation”.

Three of the defibrillators will be installed statically in high-risk locations (Moore Park Golf, Centennial Parklands Equestrian Centre and E.S. Marks Athletics Field), while the remaining defibrillators will be installed in Parklands’ Rangers vehicles that traverse the Parklands 24-hours a day.

“Defibrillators may save lives, but park visitors should always contact 000 as first point of call if they witness a cardiac arrest,” said Mr Ellis.

Contact: Amy Jozing

Phone: (02) 9339 6699