RESIDENTS in Tyldesley now have a better chance of surviving a heart attack after a defibrillator was installed in the town centre.

The public access defibrillator has been placed outside Tyldesley Library thanks to community funding.

The yellow security cabinet, which has 24-hour CCTV monitoring, contains a life-saving automated external defibrillator (AED) and is available via a 999-call to emergency services.

Residents are given the code to the machine and talked through the procedure to help people suffering from a heart attack while an ambulance is on the way.

The electronic unit aims to restore a normal heart rhythm in heart attack victims by delivering an electric shock.

AEDs are simple to use, give clear spoken instructions to first-aiders and only deliver a shock if one is needed. Astley-Mosley Common councillor Jo Platt said: “We learned about community defibrillators when councillors attended Wigan Council’s first aid training last autumn and decided that Tyldesley, like other towns across the country, should have one.

“As every second counts in these cases, the library was the obvious place at which to station it.”

Tyldesley Labour candidate Nazia Rehman said: “According to the North West Ambulance Service early action in these cases can triple someone’s chances of survival. In a study done in Chicago, six out of 11 heart attack survivors were treated by good Samaritan bystanders with absolutely no previous training.”

Residents can learn more through courses run at the Pelican Centre.