Faulty and inaccessible defibrillators linked to dozens of deaths

On a Saturday afternoon in early November last year, the members of Beauchief Tennis Club in Sheffield were taking part in their annual winter league. Russell Paul Hudgell was shaking off a chest infection but still playing a blinder of a doubles game. As his partner, Lee Hodkinson, walked to the baseline to serve, he heard a noise and turned round to find Hudgell on the ground.

Hodkinson, a trained St John Ambulance first aider, and another attendee who was a doctor, sprang into action, administering CPR and calling 999. But when they went to use the club’s defibrillator, they found that it had insufficient battery. Hodkinson later said: “I knew we were in a load of trouble then.” Hudgell died at the scene, aged 56.

At the inquest, which concluded last month, the coroner said it was likely that had the defibrillator been working, “Russell would not have died.” She warned that if changes were not made to the defibrillator system, more people would die.

Defibrillators give a shock of electricity to the heart, which can help get it beating again if someone has gone into cardiac arrest. Outside medical settings they are often located in public places such as schools, airports, community centres or repurposed phone boxes.

But a joint investigation by The Observer and BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week has revealed that this crucial network is neglected, lacking oversight and unreliable. Over the past five years, dozens of people have died in the UK where a faulty or inaccessible defibrillator was involved.

Of the 304 boroughs, ­counties, districts and city councils in England, Scotland and Wales that responded to a freedom of information request (FOI), just over a third (36%) said that all their devices were accessible around the clock. Only 91 councils had registered all their devices on the Circuit, the British Heart Foundation network that makes them accessible to ambulance services and the general public. Thirty-nine councils admitted that not all their devices had been checked in the last two months – double the recommended time – and 17 were unable to confirm whether they had ever been checked.

While each device has a ­“guardian” who is “expected” to keep them “emergency ready”, there is no legal obligation to do so.

As a result of Hudgell’s death, Beauchief Tennis Club, which is volunteer run, has implemented wholesale changes, replacing the battery and pads and introducing weekly checks of the battery, temperature and lock function. In a statement it said that these measures “satisfied the coroner and that no additional requirements were made of the club” and that “we have all been deeply saddened by the passing of Russell”.

But Hudgell’s death is not an isolated incident. In 2022 18-year-old Jamie Rees, from Warwickshire, died after a sudden cardiac arrest. While the nearest defibrillator was only two minutes away in a school, it was locked up.

“Jamie’s best friend did CPR for 17 and a half minutes, and knew exactly what to do with a defib. It was their high school, and they knew where it was and what to do but just couldn’t get to it,” says his mother, Naomi Rees-Issitt.

Rees-Issitt, who has since set up the OurJay Foundation, a charity that funds the installation and maintenance of public access defibs, says the current voluntary system means that no one is held accountable for such deaths. She believes the government should take greater responsibility.

“We need to get to the point where Denmark and others are at, where the NHS own their defibs and check them as part of their public healthcare strategy. When you take ownership of such a vital piece of life support equipment, you should get consistent guidance and support, but there is so much that’s missing.”

As well as it being time consuming, there is a financial cost to being a guardian of a defibrillator. Rees-Issitt’s foundation is in the process of replacing hundreds of pads for the devices – at the cost of £100 apiece. “The commitment and fundraising you have to put in to keep them emergency ready – it’s a bigger project that people don’t grasp,” she says. So far the work carried out by the OurJay Foundation has saved the lives of 23 people across the Midlands.

Attempts have been made to legislate around the issue, mostly recently by Stephen Metcalfe, the former Conservative MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock. His private members’ bill would have required all housing developments of 10 dwellings or more to provide funding for the maintenance and installation of defibrillators.

“It always strikes me that there are well-meaning organisations that put defibs in and about the place, but they’re not necessarily where people might need them most, which is where people live, work and play,” he says. “If you put them in housing developments, as opposed to on the side of church halls, they might be more accessible.”

The bill never made it through parliament. Yet the government has since put even greater onus on defibrillators as a public health measure. From next year, the people taking their theory driving test will answer questions on how to use them, as part of moves to “boost cardiac arrest survival rate”.

One of the questions is simply: “Who can use a public access defibrillator?” The answer is anyone – but only if it works.