Twenty-seven automated external defibrillators (AEDs) which authorities have installed in public places across Bangkok to allow first-responders to resuscitate people suffering from sudden heart failure have gone missing, according to police.
Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Atchayon Kraithong said the missing AEDs were among 262 units donated by the Thai Red Cross Society back in 2021.
Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) commissioner, Pol Lt Gen Thiti Saengsawang, has instructed all stations across the capital to ramp up efforts to find the AEDs, especially as some have reportedly ended up for sale online.
According to Drama-addict, a popular Facebook page which broke the story, the missing AEDs are worth around 1.9 million baht.
Motorlance, a network of motorcycle ambulance drivers, urged the public not to buy the stolen AEDs, saying each unit has a unique serial number than can be traced.
Those who buy these units may end up facing criminal charges, the network warned on its Facebook page.
Thanadon Rochanasantikun, head of the paramedics centre at Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Medicine Department, also urged those who have the stolen AEDs to return them to authorities.
When it comes to heart failure, the patient’s chances of survival are far higher when an AED is on hand, compared with the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation alone, he said.