Dr Andrew Rynne says that defibrillators used to resuscitate victims of heart attack should be withdrawn from use.

They are regarded by many medical practitioners, patients and health lobby groups as a key factor in the fight against deaths caused by sudden heart disease.

Rynne said yesterday, however, that because the brain can only be starved of oxygen for a maximum of three minutes before suffering permanent damage, resuscitation that took over five minutes was very likely" to cause persistent vegetative state (PVS) in the patient with virtually no chance of recovery". If defibrillators were used in sports grounds around the country, it could put more and more people in such a situation. You are better off dead than in a vegetative state, " he said.

Rynne, who opened up the country's first vasectomy clinic, will deliver a paper on the 'Right to Die, Right to Live' at the Burren Law school next weekend. Neil Johnson of the Galway-based cardiac-support group, Croi, said that Rynne's comments were at variance with the National Task Force report which recommended that defibrillators be made widely available in public places such as football grounds with people trained to use them. The call for widespread use of defibrillators followed a spate of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (Sads) in 2004 among young athletes, including the 24year-old Tyrone footballer Cormac McAnallan and under-19 international rugby player John McCall.

Every year 5,000 people suffer heart attacks outside hospitals and the survival rate is 1%. But with a defibrillator and CPR it leaps to 50%, " said Johnson.

While there was always a risk of brain damage if resuscitation went beyond eight minutes, and there had been a few cases of this happening, the risk was miniscule compared to the benefits of saving the lives of half of those people who would otherwise be dead, said Johnson. The Croi representative said Rynne's comments were ?unhelpful".