THE Red Hill and Flinders area is one of Victoria’s 20 official “heart safe communities”, thanks to a program that has taught community members to save the life of someone having a cardiac arrest.
Ambulance Victoria (AV) community engagement coordinator Emily Jackson said that over the last two years, the heart safe program in Red Hill/Flinders had been vital in building community resilience and improving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates for people living and working in the area.
“The expansion of the heart safe community state-wide program, a joint initiative between AV and the Heart Foundation, built the confidence and skills in local communities to step in and provide life-saving assistance if someone is in cardiac arrest,” Jackson said.
“The program aimed to raise community awareness of cardiac arrest, promote the role of triple zero in a cardiac emergency, teach people cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills, how to use an automated external defibrillator, identify and register existing defibrillators, install and register new defibrillators and promote and educate on the use of smart phone technologies, like the GoodSAM (Smartphone Activated Medic) App.”
Cardiac arrest happens when a person’s heart suddenly stops beating and stops pumping blood effectively around the body.
“While bystanders alone will never replace an ambulance service, equipping people with skills to start the chain of survival; starting chest compressions or CPR and using an AED does save lives,” Jackson said.
An AED is used to deliver an electric shock to help restore normal heart rhythm following a cardiac arrest.
Under the heart safe program 17 participating sites and 19 new public AEDs have been registered in the past two years in Red Hill/Flinders.
Nine of them are available at any time and are located at St George’s Anglican Church, Red Hill Tennis Club, Lancemore Lindenderry Red Hill, 1st Red Hill Scout Group, Red Hill Consolidated School, Red Hill Lions Club, Food on the Hill, Red Hill Pharmacy and Southern Peninsula Basketball Association. They have been registered on the AV AED register, which means that if someone suffers a cardiac arrest and a bystander calls 000, the call-taker can direct people to the nearest defibrillator.
“Anyone can use an AED, regardless of whether they have received training to do so,” Jackson said.
Jackson also urged residents to register with GoodSAM that connects Victorians in cardiac arrest with responders and defibrillators in the critical minutes before paramedics arrive.
For information on the heart safe program and how locations are selected visit ambulance.vic.gov.au/heart-safe-communities/
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 30 August 2022
