Newbattle Pool reaches final of UK Heart Safe Awards

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Newbattle Pool has received UK-wide recognition for best practice in Heart Safety following the role 2 staff members played in helping save the life of an elderly member of the public in April.

The UK Heart Safe Awards celebrate organisations who invest in creating 'Heart Safe' environments, as well as the acts of individual employees who have successfully used defibrillating equipment to save lives. Newbattle Pool was nominated for the award by our Health and Safety team.

Newbattle Pool was shortlisted after an incident in April in which staff used the pool's defibrillator to help save the life of an elderly resident. The pensioner had suffered a heart attack and collapsed at a bus stop outside the pool in Newtongrange. He was first kept alive by quick-thinking local schoolboy Gareth Fleming who used CPR techniques he had previously learned as a volunteer lifeguard at Newbattle Pool.

People on the scene then alerted staff at the pool, where Duty Manager Douglas Harvey and Lifeguard Barry Leslie were on duty at the time. They immediately grabbed the pool's first aid kit and defibrillator and succeeded in restarting the pensioner's pulse.