Concerns North East defibrillators would be vandalised again after repairs
It's after an incident in County Durham
There are concerns that defibrillators in the North East would be vandalised again after they are repaired.
It comes after the pads, which is an essential item, were stolen in West Auckland in County Durham from three out of four defibs.
It means they are now out of use until they are replaced which will cost the Parish Council over £360.
Alex Mason, community resuscitation officer at North East Ambulance Service, said: "If somebody's heart stops then they go into cardiac arrest and the sooner they receive a defibrillator the better their chances of survival. To find that three have been vandalised in this way to make them unusable, it makes it less safe for that community. The sooner that shock is delivered, the better the chance.
"People realise, once they have broken in, that the defibrillator is useless on its own. You can't resell these so there's no market for that. We're not seeing an increase but this was just unusual that somebody had gone in and taken the pads but left the defibrillators.
"The Parish Council who've put these in with great foresight are going to have to try and find that money now to get these back up and running, but their fear which is quite well-grounded, is that this might happen again and they can't afford to keep replacing the pads.
"From personal experience, we've probably got around 10 people in the North East already, since we've started having these being placed, that are alive today because they've had a cardiac arrest, somebody's seen what's happened, they've started CPR and then used the public access defibrillator.
"If you do need to go and get one please once you've finished with it put it back where you got it from. We have more issues with people not puttingthem back quickly than we do with vandalism than damage and theft."