Small community saving big hearts

by Courtney O'Brien
Annette Auld thought she was saying goodbye to her husband for good when his heart stopped beating during a family lunch at the Noojee Hotel in May.
There was little warning for Adrian Auld, a fit 75-year-old Gippslander, who felt unwell and faint for a few seconds before he collapsed.
Family friend and off-duty Ambulance Victoria paramedic Tom Cleaver was at the lunch and sprang into action.
He felt for a pulse and unable to detect one, began cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Mr Auld.
He asked for someone to find an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
Fortunately, only six weeks earlier, one had been installed at the pub.
"We did maybe seven or eight minutes of CPR and delivered two shocks to Adrian with the AED," said Mr Cleaver; helped also by a bystander who was an emergency department nurse.

"Adrian got a pulse back and then his condition improved over the next three or four minutes until he was actually fully alert again.
"Most likely he went into a dysrhythmia, and he needed that AED to clear the chaotic electrical activity that was occurring, so his heart could return to a normal rhythm once more," Mr Cleaver said.

Emotions were high and tears of relief and joy flowed when Mr Auld regained consciousness. Mrs Auld thought that was it, as she clung to her husband's hand and told him to hang in there.
Paramedics arrived from Warragul, where they continued treating Mr Auld before he was airlifted to hospital in Melbourne.
"We're so grateful having the defibrillator there (at the pub). If we didn't have the defibrillator, they wouldn't have got there in time being this far out," Mr Auld said.
The AED was installed at the pub as part of the Heart Safe Communities program.
The program teaches people in regional areas how to recognise a cardiac arrest, give CPR and use an AED, or 'Call, Push, Shock' to save a life; with bystander intervention having the biggest impact on cardiac arrest survival rates.
In Noojee,114 locals - a whopping 64 per cent of the community - are trained to use the device.
Four AEDs are now installed in the town, at the Noojee Hotel, Noojee Post Office, Toolshed Bar, Bistro and Cabins and at the DEECA depot (available during staff hours only).
As a result of the program more people have signed up as GoodSAM responders.
Responders are alerted by the GoodSAM app when someone within their set radius is having a cardiac arrest, so they can respond, and give someone like Mr Auld a better chance of survival.
Mr Auld spent a few more days in hospital and received a pacemaker with an inbuilt defibrillator before he was able to go home.
He has made a full recovery and is enjoying walking, riding his bike, and spending time with his family.
Although, he played golf recently and he said it didn't go very well.
"It was a course I didn't know, and I was hitting it in the wrong direction," he laughed.
Mr Auld is incredibly grateful to everyone who helped save his life and is planning to learn CPR so if he ever comes across someone who needs life-saving help, he can step in.
"I was supposed to be away that day on a road trip. If I'd been anywhere else, I may not have survived. Everything fell into place with people who knew what to do and the hotel having the defib' there to bring me back," Mr Auld said.
"It's hard to find the words to say how thankful I am. Those people saved my life."
The Heart Safe Communities program has been rolled out across 66 regional communities, trained more than 4300 people and installed 172 AEDs.
It is delivered by Ambulance Victoria paramedics and first responders and is made possible by $93,000 in funding from the Heart Foundation.