By Tyler Wright
In a demonstration from Ambulance Victoria staff members on Thursday 9 March, the members of the Emerald Men’s Shed were shown life saving skills for use in the local community.
The Call, Push, Shock session saw paramedics educate around 12 attendees about how to perform CPR and how to use a defibrillator on a patient experiencing cardiac arrest, as well as how to use the GoodSAM app which alerts the public to where the nearest accessible defibrillator is located.
“We thought it was important that we got involved and we all learn how to use it,” Emerald Men’s Shed president Alan Bennett said.
“As we are all getting older, there’s more possibility that one of us in here could have a heart attack or someone in the public could have a heart attack.
“If we can assist them or assist someone in the shed, then it’s an important thing we need to do.”
According to the Ambulance Victoria presentation, thousands of Victorians suffer a cardiac arrest at home or out of home each year.
“For every minute without life saving intervention, a person’s chance of surviving rapidly decreases. Tragically, only one in 10 people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest,” Ambulance Victoria paramedic and community engagement officer Tim Hill said.
Men’s shed members were able to practise compressions on a dummy and use the men’s shed defibrillator, which uses spoken instructions, on the mock patient.
Senior team manager for Cardinia 2, Sharon Haslam, said bringing information into the community will help make a difference to people’s lives.
“All we want to do is give people enough confidence to put their hands on a chest… start the compressions and get someone to get a dfib, know where they are, be familiar, and then that will be the game changer,” Ms Haslam said.
“Being a small community [with] only one ambulance. quite often we’re not up here, so at least the community can hopefully manage themselves until we can get a car into the area and take over the arrest.”
