£678 raised to help buy Resuscitation Annie dolls for Dunbeath Community Fire station – the dolls are modelled on the death mask of a victim of drowning who has 'saved' many lives over the years
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Dunbeath and Berriedale community groups joined forces to raise £678 towards a special fund for Dunbeath Community Fire station to buy resuscitation practice dolls.
At the cheque handover event at Wick's Town and County Hospital were Neil Buchanan, chair of Dunbeath and Berriedale Community Council, Dunbeath fire service group commander John Irvine along with James and Rosemary Gunn from the Dunbeath and Berriedale Fire Fund (DBFF). The money has gone to buy Resuscitation Annies – CPR dolls for practicing lifesaving techniques on.
Mr Buchanan said that the majority of the money (£500) came from a BOWL micro grant and the remaining £178 from the DBFF. Speaking on behalf of the fire service, Mr Irvine said that the £678 had gone towards buying the CPR dolls that he had brought along with him.
"We only had one that we shared among all the fire stations and we could only hold onto it for a week or two at a time," he said. "With more first aid [being taught] it's getting more technical. Janet [Ross] helped organise it and we have these at the station now. If we have community engagements we can take them and give people a chance to try them out."
Resuscitation Annie is a medical simulator dummy used for teaching both emergency workers and members of the general public techniques that can save lives.
The face is modelled on that of a teenage girl whose body was recovered from the Seine river in Paris in the late 19th century and became known as L'Inconnue de la Seine. She was never identified but her visage was captured in a death mask that became a popular fixture on the walls of artists' homes after 1900. Reborn as Resuscitation Annie, the unfortunate drowning victim has unwittingly saved many thousands of lives over the years.
