UFU Victoria

United Firefighters Union of Australia
Victorian Branch

Search
Shift Calendar

Shocktober Restart A Heart

Restart A Heart Day on 16 October is part of the Shocktober campaign and is a global initiative to raise awareness and educate our community about learning CPR and how to use an AED.

UFU Delegate Samuel Watterson recently organised a reunion with paramedics and firefighters who saved the life of Dave Owen as part of an awareness campaign:

A Richmond man is lucky to be alive after suffering a cardiac arrest while at work in early August.

Fifty-one-year-old Dave Owen was undertaking plumbing work at his long-time friend Tim Stewart’s home when he felt chest pain and knew something wasn’t right.

Tim started driving Dave to hospital but when the pain worsened, he pulled over and called Triple Zero (000), where paramedics rushed to the scene.

“The first paramedic arrived and confirmed Dave was having a heart attack. Not long after that, he went into cardiac arrest”, Tim said.

“I started the first round of compression and the paramedic got the defibrillator on Dave.”

Acting Senior Team Manager Jack Boessler, who was the first paramedic on scene, said Dave received 21 shocks from an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to bring him back to life.

“We continued performing CPR while we transported Dave to hospital,” Jack said.

Every day, around 20 Victorians will suffer a cardiac arrest and only 1 in 10 survive.

Dave came in and out of consciousness during his cardiac arrest and remembers the first responders who came to his aid.

“I woke up a few times throughout it all and remember seeing the paramedics and firefighters there. I’m grateful for everything they did to help me,” Dave said.

Dave reunited recently with the Ambulance Victoria paramedics and Fire Rescue Victoria firefighters who helped saved his life as part of Ambulance Victoria’s Shocktober campaign.

Now in its fourth year, Shocktober calls on Victorians to learn CPR, register as GoodSAM Responders and to know where their closest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is located.

For information about Shocktober, the GoodSAM app and how to perform CPR and use an AED (defib), visit https://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/shocktober/

The UFU acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land, and we pay our respect to their Elders, past and present.

The UFU supports the call of First Nations peoples for a Voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the Constitution.

Access to and use of the United Firefighters Union Website including all information available on that system (for example, documents, presentations, and videos) is organised, operated and owned by the United Firefighters Union. The materials contained on the UFU’s intranet are protected by Australian Copyright Laws. No part of the UFU’s Intranet information may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the UFU. Any breach of the these conditions will result in prosecution.