Cardiac arrest survivor meets saviours
On Friday 28 August 2009, Paramedics Peter Fisher and Brett Schrader
from Birmingham Gardens Ambulance Station presented Mr Ronald Parkes
with a Zoll watch. The watch represents the survival of a person who has suferred a cardiac arrest.
Mr Parkes was cleaning his elderly mother's yard on a very hot afternoon in early January this year. He began to feel unwell and sat down 'to get his breath'. His daughter noticed he looked breathless and grey. She made him go inside to drink some water and have a cool shower. After the shower he was sitting in the lounge and suddenly collapsed, she called Triple Zero (000).
On arriving, the paramedics found Mr Parkes pulseless and not breathing, no cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was being peformed.
After a slighltly difficult resusitation Mr Parkes was transported to John Hunter Hospital where he was sent for an urgent angiogram. A stent was inserted immediatly opening a near total blockage of the main coronary artery. Mr Parkes was dicharged just three days after his cardiac arrest. He has no problems as a result of the event other than two blank days in his memory.
Mr Parkes was keen to meet the paramedics who attended to him on the day so he could personally thank them. He was accompanied to the presentation by his daughter and grandson, both of whom were present on the day of his cardiac arrest.
Photograph: Mr Parkes (centre) with Paramedics Peter Fisher (left) and Brett Schrader at the presentation .
Ambulance is committed to assisting the community create safer and healthier environments and outcomes by making prevention everyone’s businesses. A number of innovative community education programs have been implemented to assist identify life threatening conditions, understand what to do in an emergency and the importance of adopting illness prevention strategies.