The HeartStart
Foundation ABN : 30 284 021 508
Endorsed for charity tax concessions
"HEART 
START"
A ROTARY CLUB OF WILLIAMSTOWN PROJECT
IN
DISTRICT 9800
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The HeartStart
Foundation ABN : 30 284 021 508
A ROTARY CLUB OF WILLIAMSTOWN PROJECT |
|
|
Launch of the School Project
Claude Bury (far right) pictured with Premier Steve
Bracks and Education Minister Lynne Kosky KICK START FOR HEART PROJECT CLAUDE BURY has "died" seven times - and that has motivated him to become the driving force behind a project that aims to save children from a silent killer. His project reached a milestone on Friday, when Premier Steve Bracks launched a pilot program to place heart defibrillators into schools. Education Minister Lynne Kosky presented a defibrillator - designed to restart a patient's heart if it loses rhythm and stops pumping because of an electrical malfunction in the heart - to Seaholme Primary school. Mr Bury is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Williamstown, set up the Heartstart program, which provides defibrillators to children judged to be in danger of heart seizures, about 16 months ago. He said his drive to help vulnerable children was partly inspired by his own health problems which included an instance of cardiac arrest, when his heart stopped pumping blood for eight minutes. He also suffered three heart attacks and has survived two quadruple heart bypass operations. After his cardiac arrest, Mr Bury was fitted with a Pacemaker/Defibrillator which has started his heart after it stopped beating six or seven times. Mr Bury said 360 people - mainly children and teenagers - die in Australia each year from electrical failures that cause the heart to go into spasms of 'quivering' and stop pumping blood. 'It's a little known problem and there are no warning symptoms before the cardiac arrest' he said. 'The lucky ones pass out and are resuscitated, but the unlucky ones die on the spot. "The only way to get the heart beating is with a electrical shock." Mr Bury said the Heartstart program aims to place a defibrillator in every primary school in the western Victorian Rotary District. As a pilot program, Rotary clubs and the State Government are sharing the cost of placing the machines in five Hobsons Bay schools - Seaholme, Altona, Williamstown, Williamstown North and St Mary's Catholic School, Williamstown. Each machine plus training of staff costs $4,600.00. "I hope we never need them," he said." But they're like smoke alarms. You install them hoping they'll never be used - but when you need them they can mean the difference between life and death." Mr Bury said through "The Heartstart Foundation" and Rotary they are seeking donations to pay for more defibrillators to be placed in schools. www.heartstart.org.au
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