The last, but by no means the least, public access defibrillator that was bought with funds donated to
Katie's Heart Appeal from the Stanford Park Christmas lights event, and The Rotary Club's Santa Sleigh route, has been installed.
Katie's Heart Appeal Defibrillators in the Community campaign started when Katie had been rushed into A&E majors by ambulance Christmas 2012 as she was in an irregular dangerously high heart rhythm again.
Katie was admitted for 24/7 monitoring for 5 days under the guidance of her cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Her heart just could not stay in a regular rhythm despite her medication and emergency treatment.
One morning on the ward round Katie asked the consultant "why do I have to go to A&E every time, why can't I just come straight to the children's ward"
The consultant replied "Because that's where all the life saving medication is, and where we keep the defibrillators"
Katie said "well then you should have defibrillators everywhere"
The consultant agreed and said to Katie "yes you are right".
Once Katie was out of danger and was allowed to return home. Katie's family started looking to see if there were any public access defibrillators local to them. After contacting the Arrhythmia Alliance and AED Locator, they were informed not only were there no Public Access Defibrillators in Stanford, there were none in Thurrock.