Bear with me while I share a recent story. On New Years Eve last year I was up on Bogong High Plains in the VHC hiking with another myswag gentleman who had to head home for NYE family celebrations. I had decided to stay on as the weather had been great and a couple of other myswaggers were hoping to head my way. I decided to do a short hike up to Roper Lookout then down to the village for a coffee and a bite to eat when my Vic Emergency App went off advising a dry lightning strike in the vicinity. When I checked the location my eyes couldn’t believe was I was reading........fire location ‘Roper Lookout’ this wasn’t even an hour after I had been up there.
Now this as many of you may recall was at the same time as the major bushfires were burning along the coast of SE Aus so I decided to put a few contingency and possible evacuation plans together in case I needed to get off the mountain in a hurry. I was waiting to hear from the people heading my way so, as the area I was camping in was further south headed back there to start packing up just in case.
While waiting for the people to contact me or turn up, I must have dozed off (may have been the beer with lunch) and not much later was awoken by a very loud clap of thunder nearby. Now we’ve all heard thunder overhead, but have to say at this altitude thunder has a whole new sound and ground shaking experience something I’ll never forget. (If you’re old enough it reminded me at the time of an old comedy skit by a now disgraced comedian ‘It’s the Lord, Noah’)
Not much after this event and for the first time in 3 days there was smoke in the camp, so I quickly finished packing up and suggested to a few other nearby campers it was possibly a good time for everyone to leave. On the way back through Falls Creek I came across the local policeman who told me there had been several more lightning strikes and multiple fires and they were evacuating and closing the mountain. Up until this time the Bogong High Plains were picturesque with clear blue skies most of the time. I’d also by now received a message that my other myswag friends weren’t able to get out of Eden due to bushfire road closures and were as safe as could be so I headed for home.
On the way down the mountain I realised how close I’d come to danger and thought to myself, clearly God (or whomever you may believe in) had deemed today was not my time, and there must be something I’m still meant to do in life. Maybe it had something to do with lightning........
Now as some of you may know, my job was made redundant 3 years ago, (in fact I was told 2 days before the National Meet at Mansfield) and I have remained successfully unemployed with some casual labour & consulting work keeping the bank account topped up, food on the table and cold beer in the fridge, but most importantly healthy & happy in life. So when this event on Bogong occurred I had a sense that 2020 might be the year that life changes (yeah, I know right, let’s not talk about the current 2020). So when 2 weeks later I received a call from a person called Guy Leech, apart from the fact it was the real ex Iron Man/Coolangatta Gold/Series 2 Australian Survivor champion Guy Leech I kind of figured this was ‘the call I’d been waiting on.
Some of you may know that 4 years ago Guy was out paddling with a mate who suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. The mate ‘Chucky’ was fit & healthy and not that old and after getting him to shore, called an ambulance and started CPR. The ambulance arrived and they continued CPR & commenced defibrillation while transporting them both to Royal North Shore Hospital. Unfortunately Chucky passed away later that week from complications but it started Guy on a new ‘meaning of life’ challenge which includes the creation of www.heart180.com.au with a mission to install AED or Defibrillator units within 180seconds of every Australian. 180 seconds is the premium time to start defibrillation if possible and Guy’s call to me was to come and help him with his mission.
http://www.guyleech.com.au/my-mission/
Within the space of 8 weeks reaching out to my old business network (and with Covid19 hindering in the background) we’ve already had a commitment from a major national organisation to install 5,000 new defibrillators across Australia in their businesses over the next 5 years, and recently Guy & Heart180 have launched the neighbourhood defibrillator program with a target of another 50,000 defibrillators in streets, apartments and businesses around Australia ASAP. No easy task as these units currently cost between $2k & $3k for the medical grade units however the street program is designed for a group of neighbours to cofund and locate a defibrillator central to their street.
In researching why any of us would want to be part of this this initiative, the current stats are that there are currently 30,000 out of hospital SCA events every year in Australia. That’s close to 100 every day with a current recovery success rate of 6%. The other 94% being someone’s loved one, family member or friend.
My reason for starting this thread is twofold.
1 - start a discussion thread to share your SCA story and create awareness that it doesn’t matter how fit & healthy you think you might be, SCA events are happening every day around us and form part of the largest human killer event in Australia.
2 - Do you have a defibrillator at your work, in your home or as part of your touring kit and who is trained to use it? 10 years ago a defibrillator unit cost over $10k and were only available through emergency or hospital service with professionally trained team members. Today the technology is such that the cost of these units, while still a considerable amount of money, could be cofunded and shared with a group of neighbours. Or if you are a business are 100% taxable write off as part of your workplace safety kit.
If anyone is interested in finding out more, St John’s Ambulance, First Aid Australia & Ambulance Victoria have defibrillator & training programs available. Alternatively you can contact Guy Leech via his website www.guyleech.com.au or call me on 0490705651 (Scott)
p.s. lightning and electricity are one of the best things to get a heart pumping, literally.
