A luxury five-star hotel has apologised unreservedly after it refused to provide its defibrillator to an elderly man having a heart attack just outside its premises.
The Chester Grosvenor Hotel has been roundly criticised after Nathan Roberts made a public Facebook post, describing the incident at lunchtime on Saturday.
Branding the £210-a-night hotel’s actions “disgusting” in a post that has been shared more than 10,000 times, Roberts wrote: “Today at around 13.30 I was in the shopping centre next to the hotel, when I walked past an elderly gentleman who looked unwell.
“After speaking with the gentleman’s wife and with himself I realised that he was having a heart attack. A member of staff from the shopping centre called the emergency services while I went into the hotel to ask for their defibrillator.
“Upon asking for their defibrillator I was told that I couldn’t ‘lend’ it.
“First of all you don’t lend a defibrillator, you use it to save someone life regardless of whose property it is. If you are unwilling to provide life-saving equipment to someone who needs it then shame on you and I hope that you or a member of your family never finds themselves in a situation like this.”
Fortunately, a second hotel nearby was more charitable, he added. “I would just like to thank the New Blossoms Hotel around the corner for helping to save this man’s life by letting us use their defibrillator,” Roberts added. “And thank you on behalf of this man’s wife too.”
Speedy treatment with a defibrillator to administer a shock to restart the heart of a patient suffering a cardiac arrest is part of a chain of actions, including early resuscitation, viewed as giving a greater chance of survival.
A defibrillator’s electrical shock to the heart within three to five minutes of collapse can produce survival rates as high as 75%.
Roberts added: “As for the Grosvenor hotel, I will never stay at your hotel, and I hope people read this and see exactly what the management are like. If you aren’t giving them an extortionate amount of money then they will quite literally let you die and not even bat an eyelid.”
Apologising, the hotel blamed the incident on an “internal miscommunication”, saying it frequently does give out the device to the public.
It said: “The hotel has always made its defibrillator available to the local community when requested, many times over the past year. We apologise unreservedly and we deeply regret that, on this occasion, an internal miscommunication resulted in its use being denied. The defibrillator will continue to be made available for use in all emergency situations.”|
