Scotland Restaurant Gets AED
The device was originally offered to the local fire brigade, but they turned it down because they aren't trained yet.
An Argyll restaurant which is due to open next month is believed to be one of the first in Scotland to be equipped with its own heart defibrillator.
Etonella Christlieb, who runs Melfort Pier Holidays, a luxury self-catering accommodation complex, with her millionaire husband, John, says more rural businesses should follow their lead.
She originally offered the £3,000 defibrillator to the local volunteer fire brigade, at Kilmelford, but they had to decline the offer as they are not yet trained to use such machines.
So Mrs Christlieb, a trained first-aider, decided to keep it at the new 32-seater restaurant, for use at the Melfort Pier complex, which has 15 self-catering houses and is next to a busy waterway.
Mrs Christlieb, who is teaching her 12 staff basic first aid and how to use the defibrillator, said: "I don't know of any other restaurant in Scotland that has a defibrillator, but I think that other businesses in rural areas should get one.
"We are near the water here and you never know when you might need a defibrillator, so now we have one - although we hope we never have to use it."
She said it can take a long time for emergency services to reach rural areas of Argyll and said that having a defibrillator available on site could be the difference between life and death.
When they are not at Melfort, the Christliebs spend much of their time at their other home in Palm Beach, Florida, where Mrs Christlieb, a trained Red Cross first aider, is a volunteer police and fire officer.
She chose the defibrillator as a gift from the American Heart Association to thank her for her long hours of volunteer emergency services work during Hurricane Wilma.
Mrs Christlieb said it was important to act quickly if a person experienced a heart attack so that they didn't suffer a lack of oxygen to the brain, and added: "In America all the schools and all the golf courses and private clubs have them."
Strathclyde Fire Brigade's group manager, Sandy Gow, said: "I think this is a really good initiative and I commend Mrs Christlieb for doing it.
"The volunteers were keen to take the defibrillator on board but we have to go through all the proper procedures before we can implement things."
As well as training, fire brigade equipment also has to go through lots of tests as, once an officer uses it on a person, they are taking responsibility for the individual's life.
But Mr Gow said: "Mrs Christlieb's offer was recognised as a very nice and meaningful gesture but the fire brigade was not in a position to accept it at that time.
"We are going down that road though. Some of our volunteers are undergoing a pilot programme in association with the Scottish Ambulance Service and we will be trialling defibrillators on some of the islands, such as Luing."
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