Donegal Senator Manus Boyle has called for the Minister of Enterprise to engage with Google to add defibrillator locations to Google Maps.
Senator Boyle raised the idea in the Seanad today after an incident in his locality where a woman suffered a heart attack.
Senator Boyle said he drove to find a defibrillator, but, without any locator apps on his phone, he was unsuccessful at first.
“I went to two places where I thought there were defibrillators. They weren’t there, they were taken away to be fixed,” Senator Boyle said.
“We were lucky the local club Naomh Ultan had one and it worked well.
Rather than making people download external apps, Senator Boyle proposed that the Seanad would asked Minister Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, to talk to Google about integrating a defibrillator finder into the existing Maps application.
“Everybody has their iPhone on them now. If there was a finder for ‘defib near me’, it could save somebody’s life,” he said.
Speaking after the Seanad address, Senator Boyle said: “Every minute that passes without defibrillation reduces the chances of survival by 10%. In rural areas or neighbourhoods far from medical facilities, having a defibrillator on hand can make the difference between life and death. In a stressful situation when a life is at risk our minds can go blank as to where to find a defibrillator but if we had it on Google Maps on our phones it could be the difference between life and death.”
