Two people with defibrillators at heart and a tragedy in their past flew up from Victoria last week to talk with Dr Ravi about how their wildly successful defib program in that state could help Hawkesbury Heartstart.
Heartstart is a program started by Hawkesbury’s Dr Ravi to prevent unnecessary deaths from cardiac arrests by getting as many defib units out in the community as possible. When a person goes into cardiac arrest with their heart fibrillating, CPR can’t save them — only a defib unit can.
Defib your Club for Life is a group started in Victoria after a tragic incident. Sue Buckman’s 19-year-old son Steve dropped on the football field after going into cardiac arrest. While one of the dads of the team present on the day was a paramedic and two other CPR trained people were there, they couldn’t stop his heart fibrillating. There was no defib unit at the grounds, and the ambulance took 20 minutes to get there. Steve Buckman died.
His mother and the paramedic concerned, Andrew White, started Defib your Club for Life to try to ensure such a tragedy didn’t happen to any other family. In the handful of years it’s been going the organisation’s work has resulted in more than 3000 defib units going into Victorian clubs, sportsgrounds and businesses, hugely increasing the chance that a person in cardiac arrest can be treated within the golden 10 minutes.
Ms Buckman and Mr White came to Richmond Club on Tuesday last week to meet with Dr Ravi about how they can help his push to increase defib units in our community. With them was a rep from Cardiac Science, the brand of defibrillator used by Defib your Club for Life, who gave a demonstration.
Mr White said around 100 people a year nationally under 25 go into cardiac arrest, mostly from an unknown heart weakness, so it could happen to any of our children. He said you had to get to someone within 10 minutes of the heart going into fibrillation, otherwise only paramedics could bring them back, with a huge shot of adrenalin.
‘‘The other big category is those aged 40-55 who get back into sport after a long break,’’ he said.
He stressed that defib units were incredibly easy to use and that operators shouldn’t fear using one on someone. ‘‘They’re dead already,’’ he said. ‘‘If you can get the defib unit pads onto their chest, you can then allow the unit to do its job.’’
He said not everyone treated by the defib unit will survive, ‘‘but if one has been used, it also helps to give comfort to the family that everything possible had been done’’.
To sign up to get the special price on a defib unit — $2350, which includes training and renewables for seven years — call Dr Ravi on 0414267059.
