Call, push, shock and save lives

By Jemma Jones

Aug 5, 2024

**A community training session teaching people how to save lives will be held in Girgarre in August. Ambulance Victoria’s Tom Amery demonstrates how to use a defibrillator.** Photo by Contributed

Saving a life can be as simple as following three steps.

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Girgarre residents will have the opportunity to learn how to save lives in a session held by Ambulance Victoria at the Girgarre Memorial Hall on Wednesday, August 14.

The free training session, which will run from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, is named Call, Push, Shock and will run people through emergency instructions on how to assist someone experiencing heart failure.

This includes teaching people how to correctly perform CPR and how to locate and execute using a automated external defibrillator.

Ambulance Victoria Loddon Mallee acting operation community engagement liaison co-ordinator Chloe Hodson said these sessions were essential for rural areas that were not as easily or quickly accessible for ambulances.

“Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone — we have about 20 Victorians that will have a cardiac arrest each day,” she said.

“Unfortunately, only about one in 10 will survive, so through doing this initiative and by getting bystanders assisting early is probably one of the greatest things.”

Mrs Hodson said every minute that CPR was delayed, the survival rate of a patient decreased by 10 per cent, so teaching CPR to the average person who would then be ready to put the skills into action was important.

The sessions teach people of all ages how to respond through three simple instructions.

First, when coming across someone experiencing heart failure or cardiac arrest, call 000 for assistance.

Second, begin emergency CPR on the patient to increase chances of survival.

Thirdly, locate an AED and follow instructions to use the machine on the patient.

Mrs Hodson said through the Call, Push, Shock community training sessions, people walked away with the knowledge to prolong or save a life in the event of cardiac arrest.

“A lot of people say, ‘I’m so worried I’m doing it wrong’, but doing something is better, and hopefully through these sessions we can make people more confident to do CPR.”

Mrs Hodson also said that Ambulance Victoria was working to get more AEDs out to local and rural communities such as Girgarre to make them more readily available.

Girgarre welcomed an AED in February this year. It is located at the Memorial Hall and is accessible 24 hours a day.

Ambulance Victoria reported that 150 people were trained in life-saving CPR as part of the Heart Safe Community program in Stanhope and surrounding areas.

Mrs Hodson said the hope was to increase the number of people trained in CPR in rural areas to increase the chance of survival in the likelihood of life-threatening cardiac arrest.

Ambulance Victoria holds these events for community groups across the region, and community groups can reach out to express interest in running a session.

If you cannot make it to the Girgarre community training session, Ambulance Victoria will be holding sessions at the following locations over the next few months: