Be a CPR superhero

By Lachlan Ellis

This year’s Ballan Autumn Festival will feature a range of fictional superheroes, but our real life emergency services superheroes say anyone could be called on to save the day.

Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, and members from the Ballan Ambulance Station have issued a call for the community to be ready to perform CPR if they know how, and use a defibrillator if one is available and necessary, come the day of the Festival.

Team Manager Mark Duyker said it was vital that anyone undergoing cardiac arrest is provided with CPR as soon as possible, as an ambulance can’t always be there to help immediately.

“When someone collapses, it’s very rare that we’ll be anywhere remotely close to that incident where they fall down. The general public are going to be first on-scene just about every single time. So they become the superheroes in that context,” Mr Duyker told the Moorabool News.

“Quite often our ambulance service, even though we have an ambulance station in Ballan, we can be out in Melbourne, Ballarat, Daylesford, or anywhere. There’s only one car on 24 hours a day.

“So we need our people in the community to look after their fellow community members, and be the superheroes when they’re needed.”

Around 19 Victorians a day suffer cardiac arrest, but only 1 in 10 survive. Every minute that CPR and defibrillation is delayed after entering cardiac arrest reduces chance of survival by 10 per cent, so it’s vital that CPR and AED use begin as soon as possible while waiting for an ambulance.

Mr Duyker said that if anyone in the community installs a publicly accessible AED and it gets used, Ambulance Victoria will pay for replacement of the equipment.

“There’s a bit of an older community here in Ballan, and it’s very rare you’ll have to defibrillate a younger person. So I think it’s an ideal place to put an AED, and we’d love to see another one available. We’ve been speaking with IGA, we’re hoping they’ll install one being sort of a central area on Inglis Street,” he added.

A 24/7 AED is currently available outside the Ballan Newsagency, while AEDs are also available at the Ballan Station, the Ballan Golf Club, the Ballan Bowling Club, and mecwacare during business hours.

Registered Training Organisations that provide CPR training locally include Emergency First Aid Pty Ltd in Bacchus Marsh, and St John in Ballarat.

For more information on cardiac arrest, head to www.heartfoundation.org.au/Bundles/Your-heart/cardiac-arrest.