Defibrillation vital to saving lives

The high mortality rates associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) are often because an ambulance service cannot reach the person in time - despite their best intentions - with vital defibrillation equipment, warns St John Ambulance.

SCA is life threatening because it short-circuits the heart’s electrical system, most often causing an abnormal rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation. Lacking proper blood flow, the person loses consciousness, stops breathing and will die unless treated promptly.

St John Ambulance Victoria is leading a major education campaign to heighten the awareness among business, industry and the general public of the vital role heart defibrillators can play in preventing needless deaths. A key objective of the campaign is to encourage workplaces and the general community to have a defibrillator on hand in case of an SCA emergency.

St John Ambulance Victoria’s Peter Holyoake said: “Many SCA victims have no prior warning, having displayed no prior symptoms. The importance of defibrillation is that for every minute defibrillation is delayed, the chance of survival decreases by about 10%. A victim’s best chance of surviving SCA is to receive a defibrillation ‘shock’ within five minutes of collapse.

“Cardio pulmonary resuscitation - or CPR - can help a person in cardiac arrest, but it alone cannot be relied upon to save lives. A ‘shock’ from a defibrillator is needed to restore the heart’s normal pumping system.

“Defibrillators should be available throughout the community so they could be accessed and employed, without delay, by persons trained in their use. Having defibrillators on hand would save many thousands of lives in any given year.”

As the leading provider of first aid training in Australia, St John Ambulance conducts regular courses in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, ranging from basic first-response first aid, to training in CPR and defibrillation.