Save-a-life equipment for scheme

UMedic Healthcare senior medical sales executive Ng Kah Boon (right) briefing Pangsapuri Residensi management committee members on the proper way to use the AED. With them is Ang (in red shirt). — Photos: MUSTAFA AHMAD/The Star

PANGSAPURI Residensi in Taman Manggis Indah, Bukit Mertajam, has become the first housing scheme in Seberang Prai to be equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED), thanks to Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim.

The scheme’s management corporation chairman Ang Wei Cheng thanked Sim for selecting them to receive the equipment.

“An AED is very important in times of emergency as it can save a life.

“The installation of AEDs in apartment complexes is the best way to help people stricken by heart attacks.

“We have 108 apartment units at Pangsapuri Residensi and our target is to make sure that at least one member from each unit can operate the AED machine.

View of Pangsapuri Residensi in Taman Manggis Indah, Bukit Mertajam. It is the first apartment complex in Seberang Prai to receive a life-saving AED for residents to use.

“We have about 400 people staying here with 90% unit occupancy rate, ” he said in his short speech.

Ang said the management corporation committee members, together with assistance from the vendor who supplied the machine, would conduct a training session for the residents on how to handle the AED machine placed in the apartments’ common area.

An AED is a portable device that checks the heart’s rhythm.

It can be used to send electric shocks to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.

Anyone who has minimal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and AED training can use the device to help save a life.

Seberang Prai City councillor Bernard Cheen, who represented Sim, handed over the equipment to Ang at the apartments during a simple ceremony recently.

Cheen (left) and Ang showing the AED installed at the apartment.

Cheen advised the residents to take good care of the AED equipment.

He also took the opportunity to urge the Federal Government to provide subsidies to all apartment schemes to be installed with AED devices, which can be used to treat sudden cardiac arrest.

“Remember that a delay can result in bad outcomes in these situations, hence having an AED machine nearby will make a vital difference.

“Everybody must be able to do basic life support or CPR, ” added Cheen.

Also present at the AED handover ceremony were council health service director Mohd Ibrahim Md Nor and council Local Agenda 21 coordinator Chew Eng Seng.