Defibrillator for Rutherford Junior High School in Whanganui

Rutherford Junior High School principal Diane Henare and school volunteer Lynne Vinsen are pleased they can now offer a defibrillator to those in need.

After a tragedy next door, Rutherford Junior High School staff hope their newly installed defibrillator will be able to save the next person who needs it.

The electric shock device was installed during the July school holidays after volunteer Lynne Vinsen got the money for the machine from Four Regions Trust earlier in the year.

Also known as an automated external defibrillator (AED), the device analyses the rhythm of a person's heart and if needed gives it an electric shock to restore its natural beat.

The new defibrillator sits in a bright yellow box on the wall outside the front of the school.

The catalyst for getting it in came about six months ago when a grandfather of a Rutherford pupil, who also lived in the house next door, suffered a heart attack.

"Someone from that home came running into reception asking if we had a machine on site and we said no we didn't," Rutherford principal Diane Henare said.

Rutherford staff tried to offer support before the ambulance arrived, but the man passed away.

"Because it was so close, it was just so tragic that we didn't have one, and possibly could have saved his life," Henare said.

Henare lost her husband to a cardiac arrest four years ago when there were no defibrillators available where they lived in Mowhanau Village and it took the ambulance 45 minutes to get there.

In the period following Sandy Henare's death, his family helped organise a defibrillator to be installed in Mowhanau.

Henare said she believed that machine had already been used several times, including saving two people's lives.

"The likelihood of surviving [a cardiac arrest] without a machine is really, really low," Henare said.

The nearest defibrillator to Rutherford was at Carlton School and Vinsen said in an emergency getting there and back would take too long.

"If something happens within this area, you have to get in your car, you have to go up the road, you have to go through that really major intersection and up Carlton Ave, find a park and bring it back," Vinsen said.

The next closest option was at Cliff Dental in Castlecliff or Pacific Helmets on Heads Rd.

Vinsen said she organised the defibrillator because she was thinking about the school family more than the wider community.

"But then really quickly I sort of realised ... this isn't just for the teachers and the parents and whoever at school.

"It's for people who live within this area who need it, who know we have one and they can get it instantly."

To use the defibrillator you must call 111 to get a code to get into the cabinet where it is kept.

The machine then has an automated voice that explains how to use it.

Henare said the school was considering holding a training session for people in the community to come and learn how to use the defibrillator.

There is a phone app called AED (that can be downloaded for free on iPhone or Android), which shows where all of the available defibrillators are around Whanganui and the rest of the country.