UK mum wants defibrillators installed across town after son goes into cardiac arrest and dies

A mum wants 20 defibrillators installed across her hometown after her teen son went into cardiac arrest and died - and the nearest kit was locked away. Jamie Rees, 18, collapsed in the early hours of New Year's Day last year. He was at a friend's house when he went into cardiac arrest and sadly died in hospital five days later. The nearest available ambulance crew was stationed miles away and didn't reach Jamie quickly enough due to overstretched local NHS services. And the only available defibrillator kit nearby was locked away in Jamie’s old school -leaving his friends to perform CPR in a desperate bid to save him. By the time paramedics were at Jamie's side, his brain had been starved of oxygen and he died in hospital on January 5 2022. West Midlands Ambulance Service previously apologised to Jamie's family for the delay and said the New Year period was exceptionally busy. Now, relatives have set up a fundraiser, OurJay, to equip Jamie’s hometown of Rugby with 20 defibrillators – with more of Warwickshire planned if it goes well. Mum Naomi Rees-Issitt, 43, said: “It wasn’t until we lost Jamie until we realised how few defibrillators there are. There are defibs out there are locked in buildings. “You can’t pre-plan your cardiac arrest. Defibrillator's that are locked in buildings are pretty pointless. “There was a defib nearby but it was locked in his old high school. With the ambulance delays and the defib locked away, his friends were trying hard with CPR. “It was six weeks after his 18th. He’d been at his friend Nathan’s house just welcoming in the new year. Watched some fireworks going off nearby. “There were standing in the garage and having a dance. "Jamie turned to one of his friends and said he felt a bit funny. He sat down by a tree and he slumped over and they noticed he wasn’t breathing. “His other friend Josh started CPR on Jamie, and Nathan's mum called 999. Josh also called 999 and the dispatcher talked him through it. “The ambulance pulled up at 17.5 minutes and there were at Jamie’s side at 19.5 minutes as they were putting on PPE. “Up until September last year we had standby ambulances in Rugby. “The nearest ambulance was 15 miles away in Coventry the night Jamie died, hence why it took so long. “We don’t blame the ambulance crew, we understand it was a busy night. “If you reach a person of cardiac arrest in seven mins the chances of getting his heart beating again is 70%. “Jamie didn’t die from cardiac arrest it was the oxygen starvation. He died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome. “Jamie sadly didn’t stand a chance. Jamie won’t be the last one, if anything it’s getting worse.” After the ambulance delays and lack of defibrillators nearby, Naomi and the rest of Jamie’s family decided to start fundraising to get a defibrillator kit installed. But what started with just the one defibrillator has now turned into 20 kits due to the amount of local support the family has received. Naomi, a mum-of-two and a manager for a charity, added: “Jamie was the best lad, he put everything in. He was going to be a plumber. “He loved everyone and everyone loved him. He loved life, animals, his computer and his family. “It’s called the OurJay foundation and we’re setting it up as a charity. “We started funding for money to set up a defibrillator outside a school. We set up Jamie's JustGiving on January 26. “By the 27th, we’d raised £3,000. Jamie was a really loved by members of his college, his friends. “We realised we surpassed one defibrillator and thought, 'let's carry on'. We went up and up. "I put a post out to businesses at Rugby for raffle prizes. We gave away holidays, meals - 65 prizes. “We're still going up and up. Now we want to get 20 [defibrillators] installed by January 5, 2023, the one year anniversary. “We've done a bingo night, £,6175 raised on the August 5. “Toyota donated £400 after doing a fundraising. We've had people with long hair being chopped off for it. “We have a skydive with my sister and her husband with the British Army Parachute regiment coming up, too. “We’re all pretty exhausted. We've got events. Its blown everyone away, the support has been amazing. “We can’t thank people enough but we’re hopefully giving something back to Rugby. “These defibs, we get a grant for each one from London Hearts. £1,650 to buy normally with the casing - we get them for £1,237. All the kits we provide have a bleed kit. “It's such a minor amount of money to save a life. All our defibs are done by an electrician in Rugby, Top Marks, who offered to do it for free. "Some of the businesses in Rugby are unbelievable with the support.” Jamie has managed to give back to the community in more ways after his family discovered he was an organ donor – his organs have saved five lives. Naomi added: “He's already sa