Ambulance Victoria gives commendations to St Arnaud heroes By HANNAH CARRODUS, Bendigo Advertiser, Oct. 14, 2014, 9:59 a.m Residents given commendations for saving womans life Jenny Gifford had the fight of her life at this time last year. The St Arnaud woman, 52, was fit and healthy and had never had any symptoms of heart disease. But on the night of October 14, within five minutes of stepping on a basketball court for her weekly match, Ms Gifford suffered a cardiac arrest. Ms Gifford said she didnt remember what followed. People have said thats the way your body deals with the situation - your body blanks out, she said. However, luckily for Ms Gifford, 15 quick-thinking nearby people raced into action. Some performed CPR on Ms Gifford, others called an ambulance and some people went to the nearby netball courts to get an automatic external defibrillator to shock her heart back into normal rhythm. Paramedics arrived shortly afterwards and continued efforts to save Ms Giffords life, as she was flown by air ambulance to The Alfred hospital, in Melbourne. Its not hard to do and it does save lives. - Jenny Gifford Ms Giffords battle didnt end there - she had two more cardiac arrests in hospital the following day - but she was discharged two weeks later and is now in good health. On Tuesday, Ms Gifford had the chance to thank her saviours at an Ambulance Victoria commendation ceremony at the St Arnaud basketball stadium. Stephen Ford, the Horsham-based intensive care paramedic who attended to Ms Gifford on the day, presented the saviours with an Ambulance Victoria commendation. Ms Gifford said she was overwhelmed with gratitude. They took it in their stride and off they went, she said. Ms Gifford said to this day, doctors had no idea what caused the cardiac arrest. Theyve done every test possible and nothing has come up, she said. They call me the mystery woman. She said she no longer played basketball - instead doing light exercise such as walking - and didnt change her diet because doctors hadnt identified any part of her diet that would have caused the arrest. She said she would recommend that other people learn CPR. Its not hard to do and it does save lives, she said. Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley said the CPR and defibrillator saved Ms Giffords life. He said he wanted people to know doing CPR - even if they werent confident - was always better than doing nothing. He said people could call triple 0 and ask for callers to talk them through what they should do. Any CPR is better than no CPR, he said. BRAVE: Jenny Gifford (centre) with the people who saved her life. Picture: CONTRIBUTED #EMR #CPR
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 08:50:57 +0000
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