Saving a life in the centre of Linton

IN December last year, Linton’s Janet Verdoorn went into cardiac arrest at her home’s back door.

Her heart stopped beating, but quick-thinking family and neighbours worked together, and were able to save her life.

Earlier that morning, Hans Verdoorn remembers his wife waking up “extremely ill,” knowing there was something wrong.

She was nauseous, had bad chest pain, was sweating, and all while recovering from a knee replacement.

“I yelled out to our granddaughter, Lexi, to get Janet’s walker, and by the time we turned around, she’d dropped dead, and her colour went straight away,” Mr Verdoorn said.

Over the other side of the road at Linton Larder, café owner Carl Oberhauser was greeting Daryll Lees on the footpath as he arrived for his morning coffee.

The pair heard Mr Verdoorn shout for help over his front fence and they ran over to assist.

Mr Lees dialled 000 and put the emergency call taker on loudspeaker, Mr Oberhauser began work to clear Mrs Verdoorn’s airways, gave mouth-to-mouth and CPR, while nine-year-old Lexi held up a blanket to keep her grandmother out of the sun.

Mr Verdoorn also rang his brother, Frank for further support.

“The 000 call-taker said to get a defibrillator, so I was heading to the fire station, where there’s one in the truck, but a gentleman across the road yelled out, ‘there’s one right here at the Police Station’,” Frank Verdoorn said.

“I grabbed it within two minutes, and it made all the difference.”

Mr Oberhauser was grateful for the call-taker’s coaching down the phoneline, and for the automated external defibrillator’s straightforward usability.

“I hadn’t seen a defibrillator for 25 years, but it has the best idiot-proof card, and for those that can’t read, you just press a button and it tells you what to do,” he said.

“How every sports and recreation club doesn’t have one of these is beyond me. In these small country towns, we need them, and Janet would not be alive without one.

“It was a team effort, we all chipped in in our own way. It was a great outcome.”

At least 20 minutes after Mrs Verdoorn collapsed, Ambulance officers arrived from Skipton, and then a mobile intensive care car from Ballarat.

“Without the defibrillator, and with CPR alone, it would have been too late,” Mr Verdoorn said.

If the emergency had occurred days earlier, the Police Station’s AED would not have been available.

Although the town had other AEDs in a few locations, all were within locked facilities most people could not access.

Earlier in 2020, Linton resident Marion Coleman sparked the community conversation surrounding the need for an easily accessible defibrillator in town.

This brand-new system at the police station was bought by Pittong’s Suvo Minerals, and installed by just days before Mrs Verdoorn’s heart stopped.

She said every part of the story makes it a “miracle.” Mrs Verdoorn has recovered well, is strong and healthy, just with a “couple of little memory blips.”

“I can’t remember a thing, aren’t I lucky?”

The Golden Plains Shire, Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria congratulated and thanked all of the community responders at Linton Larder last Thursday morning.