Show caption Stuart Askew (right) saved the life of his 15-year-old son Ethan (left) with a defibrillator earlier this year. Photograph: BHF/PA Heart attack New UK defibrillator map aims to save thousands more lives each year Project hopes to end patchy information about the location of lifesaving equipment Press Association Wed 8 Aug 2018 01.00 EDT Share on Facebook

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Bystanders who see someone going into cardiac arrest could soon become lifesavers thanks to a new project to map Britain’s public defibrillators.

Information about the availability of devices – which deliver a high-energy electric shock to the heart – is patchy and not all are known to ambulance services.

If a member of the public finds someone whose heart has stopped and calls 999, they might not be directed to a publicly available defibrillator due to this lack of information.

The NHS, British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Microsoft have vowed to map the UK’s public defibrillators.

The BHF has estimated that thousands more lives could be saved if the locations were known to emergency call handlers.

Previous research has found that just 3% of patients who have cardiac arrests outside hospital are treated with public access defibrillators. The charity says this significantly reduces the survival chances of tens of thousands of people every year.

One parent has welcomed the initiative after he saved his son’s life with a defibrillator.

Stuart Askew used a public access device on his son Ethan last April after the 15-year-old collapsed on the school field.

Askew, who works as premises manager at Steiner Academy in Hereford – the same school his son attends – had helped to set up a defibrillator two days previously.

After running across the field to find the school receptionist performing CPR on his son, Askew called on Ethan’s classmates to retrieve the defibrillator. He then used the device on his son. The school had made a successful application to the BHF for a community defibrillator.

The youngster has now made a complete recoveryfollowing surgery to treat a narrowed artery, which was caused by a genetic condition.

Askew, 46, from Hereford, said: “It was without a doubt the scariest day of my life. The realisation of what was happening only hit me as I ran across the school field and could see that someone was performing CPR on Ethan.

“Thankfully CPR had been started quickly. I had installed the batteries in the defibrillator just two days earlier, and quickly called for a group of his classmates to run and get it.

“I know that without the CPR and defibrillator, Ethan wouldn’t have survived.”

Tens of thousands of defibrillators are placed prominently in workplaces, train stations, leisure centres and public places across the country.

The BHF said one of the biggest barriers to their use is that the location of the devices is often unknown.

The new project, a collaboration between the BHF, NHS England, NHS Scotland and Microsoft solutions provider, New Signature, will see a comprehensive map of defibrillators created over the next 12 months.

There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the UK, but fewer than one in 10 people survive.

In countries where the public are better equipped to recognise and deal with cardiac arrests, survival rates are up to three times higher, the BHF said.