A NORANDA man whose life was saved after a defibrillator restarted his heart has welcomed a roll-out of the devices to City of Bayswater sporting clubs.
Derek Jobe finished a masters hockey match one Wednesday afternoon in February 2014, before he headed to his car parked at Perth Hockey Stadium at Curtin University.
“I hopped into my car on the way home and that was the last I knew,” he said.
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READ NOW“I didn’t feel it coming, there was no pain; I just blacked out.”
Mr Jobe had suffered a cardiac arrest. On his way out of the carpark his car had drifted to the other side of the road and crashed into a bollard.
Tammy Cowan was bringing her son Sasha to hockey training and noticed the car with Mr Jobe slumped at the wheel.
They hauled him out and Ms Cowan began CPR while Sasha called St John Ambulance.
While an ambulance sped towards Mr Jobe, St John contacted the stadium, as they had a registered automated external defibrillator.
Two-time Olympian and Hockey WA employee Hope Munro rushed to the carpark with the device and administered a shock that restarted his heart.
“By the time they arrived I had been resuscitated, so they just had to keep me oxygenated and rushed me off to Royal Perth,” he said.
“Just before I got to emergency, I had a second cardiac arrest – that’s what makes me think I’m really lucky.
“Even the ambulance officers said in all their years with these kinds of scenarios, they’d never had a survivor.”
Stents were inserted into his chest, as well as an internal defibrillator and Mr Jobe has now fully recovered.
“For me, every day is a bonus; my attitude to life in general is I’m basically on my second life,” he said.
In an incredible twist of fate, Ms Munro only worked mornings for Hockey WA and was not meant to be at the stadium when the emergency unfolded.
She was invited by Mr Jobe’s wife to a thankyou lunch for those involved in his rescue, where she met his son – the pair is now married.
The City of Bayswater and St John Ambulance will provide $6400 each to purchase automated external defibrillators for eight local sports club.
Mayor Barry McKenna said the funding would help sports clubs that could not afford the device.
“We know that having access to a defibrillator can absolutely save someone’s life,” he said.
St John Ambulance deputy chief executive Anthony Smith said when combined with effective CPR, the defibrillators greatly enhanced a person’s chance of survival.
Every minute the heart is not beating, the odds of survival decrease by about 10 per cent.
The defibrillators will be installed at City of Bayswater sporting clubs from July this year.