Defibrillators installed at every station on Southeastern network

(L-R): Southeastern team members Lisa Taylor, Laura McMahon, Sebastian Szymanski and Southeastern Passenger Service Director David Wornham.

Live-saving defibrillators have now been installed at every station on the Southeastern network, benefitting staff, customers and the local communities across Kent, London, and parts of East Sussex.

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), which provide verbal step-by-step instructions on how to give a high energy electric shock to someone in cardiac arrest, have been rolled out to 164 stations and 17 depots across the Southeastern network. According to the British Heart Foundation, more than 30,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of hospital every year, with the survival rate less than one in 10. If a defibrillator is administered within the first minute of someone collapsing, the survival rate can be as high as 90 per cent.

Live-saving defibrillators at Southeastern

“One of our key objectives at Southeastern is to get everyone home safely every day, and having defibrillators at every single one of our stations will play a key part in that,” David Wornham, Passenger Services Director at Southeastern, said. “This is such an important project as we know how vital it is to have defibrillators close at hand when an emergency occurs. It is vital to have them in accessible public places. At train stations, they can be used by staff, customers, or members of the public nearby. If someone is in cardiac arrest, the first thing to do is dial 999. The operator will be able to talk the caller through where their nearest defibrillator is and provide a pin code to access it from a secure cabinet. No training is required to operate these defibrillators. I can understand some people may feel hesitant in using an AED but they really are very easy to operate. We have staff who have saved passengers’ lives with a defibrillator, so we know how vital they are.”