Emerald groups are life-savers

Pictured with the three defibrillators, from left, Ray Spencer (Emerald Lions), Bryan Macdonald (Ambulance Victoria), Ray Schmidt (Emerald U3A), Terry Swalwell (president, Emerald Lions) and Mal Bowmaker (president, Emerald U3A).

EMERALD U3A, Emerald Lions Club and Emerald Co-operative have just taken delivery of three life-saving Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs).
Under the guidance of Ambulance Victoria, the defibrillators will be housed in each of the group’s clubrooms.
They will be on hand in the event a club member or someone in the vicinity suffers a cardiac arrest.
The U3A branch, and its membership of about 240, would like to thank Emerald Lions for the generous financial support to this venture.
The group said they would rather the situation where the defibrillator needed to be used didn’t occur, but, as Ambulance Victoria has stated, many lives have been saved by a quick-thinking member of the public via the application of a defibrillator.
Ambulance Victoria recommends a four-step procedure in the event of cardiac arrest: ring triple zero; initiate CPR; apply the defibrillator; and apply advanced care (paramedics).