Heart stopped for 14 minutes
Brett Palmer’s heart stopped beating for 14 minutes when he collapsed on a grass berm during his morning walk in Cambridge.
With his chances of survival at just 12 per cent, the typically fit and healthy 63-year-old says he owes his life to a team of first responders.
Among them was an off-duty medic alerted to the emergency through a new Smartphone technology app GoodSAM.
GoodSAM uses GPS to alert the nearest three bystanders within a kilometre radius to people in cardiac arrest in hopes they’ll provide assistance until an ambulance arrives.
That’s how Cambridge electrician Ash Hammond found himself administering oxygen on Palmer who lay unconscious on the grass verge on September 27.
‘‘If you’re locally within that kilometre a siren sounds on your phone and they tell you where the person is located,’’ Hammond said, reunited with Palmer at his home on Monday.
‘‘I was sitting in the office talking to the boys when the phone went off.’’
Hammond signed up for the app six months ago through his work as a volunteer St John officer. When it pinged on that Thursday morning, he was quick to accept the job.
‘‘I was able to come in and help do his airway and start giving him some oxygen.’’
Palmer and his wife Raewyn had been out on their daily 3km walk with two-year-old German Shepherd Emmie when Raewyn stopped in at their local cafe on Robinson Rd.
Emerging coffee in hand, she saw Brett flop onto the ground ahead.
‘‘He just went down, right side, luckily onto the grass and not the concrete,’’ Raewyn described.
‘‘He still had hold of our dog and I just thought she had pulled him over.’’
Realising he was unconscious, Raewyn fumbled trying to unlock Brett’s phone. A worker at nearby Suburban Kitchen came to help, calling 111 while two passersby in fluoro vests and an off-duty nurse began compressions.
Arriving at the same time as the ambulance, Hammond joined paramedic Andy Bagley and volunteer firefighters from Cambridge in performing CPR.
For 14 minutes they worked to restart Brett’s heart.
‘‘We quickly applied the defibrillator and gave him a shock,’’ Bagley said.
‘‘His heart started and he started taking a few breathes on his own.’’ CPR is a ‘‘very physical’’ job, Bagley said. Two minutes is the limit one person can effectively perform CPR.
‘‘The longer you’re without a heart beat the lower the chances of survival.’’ And 14 minutes was a long time to be without a pulse.
‘‘They were just absolutely amazing,’’ Raewyn said on Monday.
‘‘I wouldn’t have Brett here today if it wasn’t for St John and the process they went through.’’
Just over two weeks on and Brett has no recollection of that day. The first he remembers is waking in Waikato Hospital.
One of Brett’s arteries was completely blocked. Doctors inserted two stents to clear them.
For the typically fit dog agility judge who retired to Cambridge from Auckland last April after a career in road maintenance, it was a shock.
‘‘I couldn’t believe I’d had a heart attack. I’m always out in paddocks, I feel quite active, never smoked,’’ Brett said.
‘‘I thought I ate well – but a heart attack can happen to anyone.’’
Used to walking eight or nine kilometres a day, being ‘‘housebound’’ is a hard adjustment.
He suffered four cracked ribs and cracked sternum from the chest compressions. To ease the pain he now sleeps in an armchair.
‘‘But hey the heart’s good. What I had was a major heart attack so I realise I have to take things easy.