Keep The Beat

It is 2yrs since my eldest brother, Shaun, passed away suddenly, aged 54 from a massive heart attack. Despite one of his children knowing where a defibrillator was, and running 4km to get it, by the time he got back, it was too late. When paramedics got there 20mins later, it was to no avail.

3 weeks late, during Shaun’s funeral, his best friend Mark, who had just finished the first reading, walked back to his seat and collapsed. We at first thought he had fainted but I soon realised it was much more serious. Myself and a few others started CPR and managed to keep him alive until the ambulance arrived but, despite our best efforts, he too passed away aged just 54.

I know it sounds too fanciful to be true and would definitely be thrown out if I sent it in as a script for a book! However, if there had been defibrillators closer to hand, the events above could have been so much different.

I have contemplated long and hard about what good could possibly come out of these tragedies and have decided that my mission from here on in is to make these life saving devices much more numerous around our local vicinity.

Although there are some peppered about Wodonga, few people would know how to use them and fewer would know where they are should they require them urgently. They are rarely in places that you would expect them to be e.g. sporting facilities, places of worship and crematoriums.

The use of a defibrillator can improve chances of surviving cardiac arrest by up to 70 per cent. Every day the hearts of 16 Australians suddenly stop pumping and their chance of surviving is minuscule unless there is a defibrillator nearby. Cardiac arrests remain the leading cause of death across the nation, with around 20,000 people having a heart attack away from a hospital every year and just 10 per cent surviving.

I don't want the lives of Shaun or his best friend, Mark, to be in vain.

Each unit costs around $2,500.

All donations will go towards buying defibrillators, placing them in our local area and alerting people to where they are located.