Campaigners set up push for defibrillators in all schools after principal saves pupil's life
Campaigners are stepping up efforts to get defibrillators installed in schools across the country.
It comes after a north Dublin principal saved a nine-year-old boy's life when he collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest in the school yard of Gaelscoil Ros Eo in Rush last month.
Headmaster Tim O'Tuachaigh performed CPR on the boy as a defibrillator, which had been given to the local GAA club by the Apache Pizza company, was rushed to the school.
Paramedics say the outcome could have been very different if a defibrillator from the local GAA club was not available.
Mr O'Tuachaigh said in September at the time of the incident: "All of the first responders said the exact same thing - that if we hadn’t done the CPR, if we hadn’t had the defibrillator, there would be a very different end to this story."
The headmaster says rolling out the devices nationwide would not cost very much.
He said: "They're not massively expensive. You can get a defibrillator for around €1,200 and you can get training for about €300 on top of that.
"For €1,500. What child's life isn't worth €1,500?"
