People across the Bellarine can learn how to help save a life with events taking place across the region for Shocktober.
This month marks the sixth year of Ambulance Victoria’s Shocktober campaign dedicated to improving cardiac arrest survival rates, with Call (Triple Zero 000), Push (Perform CPR), Shock (use an AED) sessions held across the region to inform people of what to do in an emergency.
Sessions will be held at Portarlington Makers Market on Saturday, October 5, at 7am and at the Changing Mind and Positive Ageing Expo in Moolap on Friday, October 24, from 11.30am.
Ambulance Victoria acting community engagement coordinator Sara Hadden said 21 people in Victoria will experience a cardiac arrest every day but that only 10 would survive.
“What we’re finding is that the more people we have willing to engage in learning CPR, we’re having better patient outcomes,” she said.
“So, people are surviving more than what they ever have been simply because people are willing to step in, provide CPR to the person and use an AED.”
Sessions will also be held at Golden Plains Farmers’ Market on October 4, Highton Emergency Service Day on October 5, Lara Community Market on October 12, and Bannockburn Seniors Festival on October 15.
Other Call, Push, Shock sessions are at Deakin University Waurn Ponds Campus’ Diwali Festival on October 24, Wathaurong Co-operative’s Stepping Stones to Deadliness on October 25 and Geelong Health Festival on October 25.
Geelong man Richard Sinclair suffered a cardiac arrest in June and met with the people who saved his life on September 29 as part of the Shocktober campaign.
“I’m extremely grateful that I was around people who knew what to do, they saved my life,” he said.
