The 50th public access defibrillator has been installed at the new OTR Aberfoyle Park store, thanks to a partnership between OTR and St John Ambulance SA.
The lifesaving devices have been installed at various regional and metropolitan OTR sites with the aim to save lives in the community from sudden cardiac arrest, including staff members at stores.
St John Ambulance SA Chief Executive Officer Mark Groote said cardiac arrest could happen to anyone, at anytime, anywhere.
“Having public access defibrillators located in high-traffic and high-visibility areas is so important when it comes to cardiac arrest survival rates,” Groote says.
“For every minute that passes without defibrillation, the chances of survival decrease by 10 per cent. It is fantastic to see our partnership with OTR extending across so many sites, which will ultimately save lives in South Australia.”
Each year, approximately 30,000 Australians suffer from sudden cardiac arrest. OTR General Manager Darryl Cotter said OTR was proud to be part of an important partnership with St John Ambulance SA which would ultimately save lives.
“OTR is at the heart of South Australia’s metropolitan and regional communities and we are proud to support an investment that can potentially save lives and promote awareness and use of defibrillators,” Cotter says.
The partnership is particularly important to OTR, as two staff members have suffered cardiac arrests while in public in recent years.
Subway Area Manager, Kristy Smith, suffered a cardiac arrest in 2016 and received 16 electric shocks from a defibrillator, which saved her life. Peregrine Corporation, the parent company of OTR, also had an employee, Daniel Lowe, who suffered a sudden an unexpected cardiac arrest at the gym in the same year.
“More than four years later, both Kristy and Daniel are still working for Subway and Peregrine Corporation and we greatly value their contribution to our teams,” Cotter says.
“We are grateful that the defibrillator was there for Kristy and Daniel when they needed it and we want to ensure that OTR can provide support to others should the need ever arise.”
Lowe credits the defibrillator for saving his life and knows he might not be here if it hadn’t been accessible.
“I am proud to work for an organisation that is supporting the purchase and installation of these defibrillators where they are needed, particularly across regional South Australia,” he says.
The Automated External Defibrillators (Public Access) Bill 2020 is currently before parliament, in abid to increase the installation of the life saving devices throughout the state. If passed as legislation, public access defibrillators will become mandatory in a wide variety of public buildings, facilities and vehicles, further contributing to improved outcomes for sudden cardiac arrest in South Australia.
All OTR public access defibrillators will be registered with SA Ambulance Service so triple zero callers will be directed to the nearest device in the event of an emergency, which may be at their local OTR store around the corner.
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