Faulty and inaccessible defibrillators linked to dozens of deaths

On a Saturday afternoon in early November last year, the members of Beauchief Tennis Club in Sheffield were taking part in their annual winter league.

- Catherine Neilan & Freya Shaw

Russell Paul Hudgell was shaking off a chest infection but still playing a blinder of a doubles game. As his partner, Lee Hodkinson, walked to the baseline to serve, he heard a noise and turned round to find Hudgell on the ground.

Hodkinson, a trained St John Ambulance first aider, and another attendee who was a doctor, sprang into action, administering CPR and calling 999. But when they went to use the club's defibrillator, they found that it had insufficient battery. Hodkinson later said: "I knew we were in a load of trouble then." Hudgell died at the scene, aged 56.

The coroner said it was likely that had the defibrillator been working, "Russell would not have died."

Defibrillators give a shock of electricity to the heart, which can help get it beating if someone has gone into cardiac arrest. Outside medical settings they are located in public places such as schools, airports, community centres or repurposed phone boxes.

But a joint investigation by