Health Minister Joe Cassar spoke about the importance of physical exercise when speaking during the presentation of a defibrillator to the Ta’ Qali health and fitness centre. It was important for a fitness centre which is open 24 hours a day to be well equipped for emergencies, he said.

He said every person is at risk of something happening to them, and that includes sportsmen and athletes who are physically fit. The defibrillator is used to treat the heart when it has an irregular beat and stops pumping blood to the body. For various reasons the heart could accelerate or slow down its rate, and that could lead to serious harm to a person, and even to death.

A person in such a condition, known as a cardiac arrest, loses the chance to live at 14 per cent for every minute that passes, and the chance is the defibrillator, which offers the best possibility of living on.

Dr Cassar said it was important to have different people trained properly on how to use the equipment and urged other institutions, especially where people gather in numbers, to be equipped with the defibrillator.