In Memory of Stanley (Stan) Bushby who sadly passed away on 16th August 2023 at 79 years old

Raising funds for a Defibrillator to be installed on the Harleston Industrial Estate

On Wednesday 16th August local man Stan Bushby (My dad) sadly, lost his life very suddenly.

Stan collapsed at home at Howards close in Harleston.

CPR was started immediately by me and my wife. I was sent to The Trees care home to get a defibrillator by the 999-call handler but was only given a hand-held air pump device by the care home which was no good! We were then told to go to the Co-op to get a defibrillator. By the time my wife got back with the defibrillator the first response paramedics had arrived. I carried on CRP whilst they got their equipment ready to take over.

After 40 minutes of all our efforts too much time has past and we had to make the decision for the paramedics to stop CPR. My brother who was on his way over from Norwich arrived just after this decision had been made by me and my mum Christine. My brother Carl was only aware of Dad having a fall so walked into devastating news.

This was a very sudden loss for us all. Dad had been getting himself ready for a belated BBQ party at mine for my oldest sons’ birthday and was very much looking forward to the evening ahead.

Dad had been active up to the end, he was even out on a bike ride with my son two days prior to this.

We spent the next few days wondering what else we could have done. Could we have acted faster, what if we had the defibrillator sooner and thinking we had let him down.

After a postmortem we found out we could not have saved him no matter how hard we had tried. He had the following as causes of death –

1a) Hemopericardium

1b) Ruptured Acute Myocardial Infarct

1c) Severe Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis although this has eased our conscience

This eased our grief a bit as we had been beating ourselves up. This left us thinking, what if someone else couldn’t get to a defibrillator in time? How many more people would this happen to? So I decided to do something about it.

Action time!

I have been in contact with Harleston Town council and found out my wife had been sent to the defibrillator furthest away from where we were. She had in fact driven past three on her way! But we didn’t have the knowledge of where they all were and had acted on the information from the 999-call handler.

I have requested that the current defibrillator locations and new one-way access to the Co-op be updated as it is apparent the information was out dated.

Harleston Town council will also be adding the information to the local Grapevine booklet in October so others in Harleston can be aware of their locations.

This request will be discussed further at the next council meeting on 13th September 2023.

There is a Defibrillator at the Primary school (access only during school time as it is inside the school) one at the High school, one at the leisure centre (only accessible during open times) one in the Market Place and one at the Co-op.

There is no 24/7 Defibrillator available for our side of town without having to go into the centre. When every second counts, there is a great need for one on the Industrial Estate.

With all the people working here and the new houses being built we would like to raise enough funds to have one installed on Harleston Industrial estate.

So, we ask if you would be prepared to make a donate towards the cost of the Defibrillator.

To do this we need £2500.00 and we are starting this off with a £400.00 donation from me and my wife Kerri.

Any funds raised over the £2500.00 our family would like to have a bench placed in memory of Stan who was well known and loved by so many in and around Harleston.

Anything over this will be donated to the families chosen charity The British Heart Foundation as well as all donations from his funeral in place of flowers.