The death of Dr Barry Gray from a sudden cardiac arrest was a huge shock to his community.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dr Gray suffered a heart attack and without access to a defibrillator he passed away in his home at Shoalhaven Heads on the NSW south coast.
With a majority of sudden cardiac arrests occurring at home in Australia, the Shoalhaven Heads community want to improve regional emergency preparedness.
Shoalhaven Superheroes founder David Arakie said 90 per cent of available defibrillators in the community were locked away and weren't accessible to the public after 5pm.
"They were in hospital facilities or business areas and by the time you get into your car and drive to that area you have lost the first three key minutes," Mr Arakie said.
Cardiac arrest kills 55 Australians every day yet an alarming 9 out of 10 people do not know what to do in the case of an emergency.
"The ability to have a small defib at your home or with you gives that person and that family the opportunity to save a life," Mr Arakie said.
Rapid Response spokesperson Luke Starr said the CellAED was the world's first miniaturised defibrillator.
"Instead of an AED that's the size of a small backpack we created something that's the size of a block of chocolate," Mr Starr said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Every minute after a heart attack a patient's survival rate decreases by 10 per cent.
Mr Starr said getting a defibrillator on the patient's chest could improve chances of survival by 80 to 90 per cent.
"We hope that over time we're going to be able to do something about the very high death rate associated with cardiac arrest by encouraging ordinary people to have defibrillators in their homes so they're ready to respond," he said.
It's designed for use in seconds, Mr Starr said.
"You snap the device in half, the two halves become pads, you peel off the protective layer that exposes the gel pads and then you stick those pads on the patient," he said.
The Shoalhaven Heads community is one of the first regional communities to have access to the new portable defibrillators.
"Getting the defibrillators into people's homes were the key aspects of expanding the range of defibrillators in our community," Mr Arakie said.
The CellAED is priced at $359 and weighs about 300 grams compared to hospital defibrillators that cost more than $2000 and weigh a kilogram or more.
"It makes it more affordable for a community group to purchase the defibrillators. We've come into an agreement with Rapid Response, where we can buy more defibs and donate them to the community," he said.
