Photo Jeff Dawson
Last Friday the quick actions of former paramedic Natalie O’Brien, and one of the defibrillators that the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce helped place around the area, saved a man’s life after he collapsed at the Mullumbimby Pool Shop.
‘I was about to leave the shop with my husband and kids when the pool rep putting stock on the shelf went down like a pile of bricks. The staff didn’t know what to do so they grabbed me. I felt his neck and pulse, he was starting to go blue, he was dead. I started CPR straight away.’
Bruce Butcher who works at the pool shop retrieved the defibrillator from Towers Carpets and Natalie spent around 25-30 minutes assisting the man prior to the ambulance arriving.
Shocks in between CPR
‘We did shocks in between CPR,’ explained the former Queensland paramedic to The Echo.
‘Once you are hooked up it tells you when to stop doing CPR and when to do a shock. When the ambulance came they shocked him another four times. By the time he left he had a heart rate, was breathing on his own and he was responding to pain stimuli.’
Paramedics and the police told them at the scene that if they hadn’t had the defibrillator available the man would have died. He is now recovering and the defibrillator has been reset and is available again for use.
There are defibrillators around the town of Mullumbimby outside the Mullumbimby Newsagent, at both industrial estates, the tennis courts, museum, Mullumbimby Golf Club and at the Main Arm and Federal stores.
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