Latest news with #GoodSAM
BBC News
4 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Norfolk fire service using GoodSAM video app to combat wildfires
Video technology was being used to battle a surge of fires in open spaces during the hot and dry start to the the first six months of this year, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) had been called to 101 incidents that it referred to as "fires in the open". That is more than three times as high as the 29 in the same period last Mason, NFRS group manager for operational response, said call handlers in the control room were using the GoodSAM mobile app to see what resources needed to be deployed."It allows our operators to see the incident in front of them through the person's mobile phone," he said. Explaining the process to BBC Radio Norfolk, he said: "We'll send them [members of the public] a text message with a link and that basically turns their camera into a live stream so we can see the incident and what that allows us to do is, very quickly and dynamically, to move additional fire appliances towards that incident if we can see it is escalating or growing quite quickly."And on the flip side, if the incident is smaller scale, then obviously we can manage our response to that sort of incident."So we're working really hard to manage the risk and put the appropriate resources on the incident as quickly as possible." Mr Mason said the service had seen a "steady increase in incidents across the county" with 15 open fires since Monday. The spike came amid the driest start to a year in England since 1976, with Anglian Water stating that a hosepipe ban "could still be needed" in the region this Mason continued: "We're seeing a really broad combination of incidents that are involving careless disposal of things like barbecues, cigarettes or glass bottles, through to campfires and bonfires that people are having."Also, some unfortunate incidents relating to farming machinery hitting flints or rocks in the ground and inadvertently causing a fire in a field as they are trying to harvest." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
GoodSAM alert app introduced by South Central Ambulance Service
A system that alerts trained volunteers to medical emergencies nearby is being introduced by an ambulance Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is using the Good Smartphone Activated Medics app - known as GoodSAM - which uses mobile GPS technology to message volunteers within 500m of an is hoped the responders could then begin CPR before an ambulance Harmer, operations manager of SCAS, said it could "dramatically increase the chances of a positive outcome" for cardiac arrest patients. The early delivery of CPR and defibrillation is critical in improving survival rates from cardiac arrest. Every minute without intervention reduces the chance of survival by up to 10%, SCAS first phase of GoodSAM has been introduced in the SCAS area - Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire - as well as Isle of Wight Ambulance Service healthcare professionals and clinically trained individuals are able to aim is to then open it up to trained public volunteers from the registration process includes verification of credentials and training to ensure all responders meet the required Hamer, operations manager for SCAS, said: "By enabling trained responders to reach patients faster, we can dramatically increase the chances of a positive outcome. "This is about saving lives, and we are proud to be part of this initiative."This project has been partly funded by South Central Ambulance Charity, which supports SCAS in enhancing emergency care. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Age
02-07-2025
- Health
- The Age
The 10-minute search for the device that saved a Sydney man's life
Rob Duggan was on his morning coffee run two weeks ago when he saw a man collapse in the distance. 'I could see straight away that he wasn't breathing,' said Duggan, a police officer on parental leave with his five-month-old daughter, Audrene. 'I parked my daughter up about five metres away, put the brake on the pram ... and I just got down and started CPR.' Dharm Singh Hooda, an otherwise healthy 66-year-old grandfather, had just finished his daily morning walk around Elara Sporting Fields in Marsden Park when he went into cardiac arrest. Duggan's quick thinking, and an off-duty paramedic who raced to the scene after receiving an alert on the GoodSAM app, kept Hooda alive. He had performed CPR many times in 15 years as a cop, but this was the first time someone had pulled through. 'I feel pretty happy he's on the mend,' he said. Hooda is now recovering in Westmead Hospital. He is in a rare club – only 10 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest survive. His cardiologist, Dr Pramesh Kovoor, said Hooda's condition was improving, but he had suffered neurological damage because of a delay in defibrillation. 'He's expected to be in the hospital probably for two to three weeks in total, in contrast to somebody who would have required maybe a few days in the hospital if they received a shock within three minutes,' Kovoor said.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
The 10-minute search for the device that saved a Sydney man's life
Rob Duggan was on his morning coffee run two weeks ago when he saw a man collapse in the distance. 'I could see straight away that he wasn't breathing,' said Duggan, a police officer on parental leave with his five-month-old daughter, Audrene. 'I parked my daughter up about five metres away, put the brake on the pram ... and I just got down and started CPR.' Dharm Singh Hooda, an otherwise healthy 66-year-old grandfather, had just finished his daily morning walk around Elara Sporting Fields in Marsden Park when he went into cardiac arrest. Duggan's quick thinking, and an off-duty paramedic who raced to the scene after receiving an alert on the GoodSAM app, kept Hooda alive. He had performed CPR many times in 15 years as a cop, but this was the first time someone had pulled through. 'I feel pretty happy he's on the mend,' he said. Hooda is now recovering in Westmead Hospital. He is in a rare club – only 10 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest survive. His cardiologist, Dr Pramesh Kovoor, said Hooda's condition was improving, but he had suffered neurological damage because of a delay in defibrillation. 'He's expected to be in the hospital probably for two to three weeks in total, in contrast to somebody who would have required maybe a few days in the hospital if they received a shock within three minutes,' Kovoor said.
Sydney Morning Herald
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome
Murray Wight was laughing at a comedian's joke, something about cheetahs and greyhounds, when his attention snapped away from the stage and onto a man who suddenly slumped into the theatre aisle. Cramped in the dress circle of St Kilda's Palais, it was dark and difficult to make out what had happened. 'Did he drop something? Is he looking for it on the ground?' Wight and his son leaned over, propping the man up. Within seconds, the scene on those theatre steps became life-and-death. Two nurses and an off-duty paramedic came clambering down the stairs in the darkness – one of the nurses falling and landing hard on her knees. They gripped the man and awkwardly heaved him over his armrest, launching into chest compressions in the aisle. Stunned, Wight and his son stepped back and watched, locked into their seats. Other theatre-goers twisted and craned their necks, shining phone lights to improve visibility. Loading In the 15 minutes it took for paramedics to arrive, Wight shifted from panic, to frustration, to anger. Finally, he heard the first beeps of a defibrillator. 'I yelled, at the top of my voice: 'Stop the show, there's a man dying.'' 'It's crazy': The case for a defibrillator mandate One of the first things triple-zero operators do when they take a call is check whether there is a defibrillator registered with Ambulance Victoria nearby. There wasn't one on the night of March 26 at Melbourne's Palais Theatre. Nor did the venue have a defibrillator registered with GoodSAM, the app for cardiac arrest first-responders. Australia records about 32,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year, which is 25 times the country's annual fatal road toll. Leading cardiologists and CPR advocates are unequivocal: thousands of Australians would still be alive today if a defibrillator had been nearby when they went into cardiac arrest. Yet there is no legal requirement for public venues and buildings to have defibrillators on-site in any state or territory, except South Australia. In Victoria, WorkSafe requires employers to have a defibrillator on-site if cardiac arrests are likely, and if it is a 'reasonably practicable' measure to manage the risk of death. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest.' St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz As for public venues, registered and publicly accessible defibrillators are recommended, but not mandatory. South Australia's mandate demands defibrillators at public venues and threatens fines of up to $20,000 for any venue that does not comply. The mandate took effect for Crown-owned property – like schools, swimming pools, libraries and town halls – in January this year and will extend to some private businesses, buildings and public transport in 2026. Theatres, yoga studios and sports bars will be among those it applies to, and registering defibrillators within two weeks of installation is one of the strict requirements of the legislation. St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz said early defibrillation can improve a person's chances of surviving a cardiac arrest by more than double, and South Australia's mandate could easily be replicated Australia-wide. A person's cardiac arrest survival rate can decrease by 10 per cent for every minute a defibrillator is not used during CPR. Ambulance Victoria's median response time for cardiac arrest patients is eight minutes. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest,' Paratz told this masthead. 'There's clear evidence of its benefits and its utility. On a practical level, it's crazy to have laws in one state that aren't national.' Paratz, in researching the topic, found that Australia's inequitable access to defibrillators contributes to avoidable deaths. NSW is considering mandating them in public venues, but it's not on Victoria's agenda, experts say. The Victorian government instead points to last month's ambulance cardiac arrest registry annual report, which found the state has Australia's best cardiac arrest survival rate – the third-best in the world. 'If [defibrillators] are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head Andre La Gerche Loading The results are partly because of more than 10,000 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) registered in Victoria, which is more than in any other Australian state or territory, a government spokesperson said. 'We have also made it easier for sporting clubs and recreational organisations to access AEDs through a dedicated grants program,' the spokesperson said. The Victorian government has also rolled out AEDs across the V/Line and Metro Trains network. But St John Ambulance Victoria boss Gordon Botwright looks at the statistics differently. In 2023-24, 141 people were shocked by public defibrillators in Victoria – a record number – and 47 per cent of those people survived, the registry report boasts. Botwright argues those cases only account for a tiny fraction of the total 7545 people who went into cardiac arrest outside of hospital in Victoria that year, and the survival rate was far less overall – just 6 per cent. Applying the 47 per cent survival rate to the total number of patients, more than 3000 people's lives could have theoretically been saved that year if they had a public defibrillator nearby, Botwright said. The report notes that almost 80 per cent of the cardiac arrests happened at home. 'We've got an absolute sign here that we could move the 6 per cent [survival rate] to 47 per cent if we could apply defibrillators in publicly accessible spaces, or people could access defibrillators more readily, even in their homes and suburbs,' Botwright said. 'We could shift that.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head André La Gerche said virtually all arguments against mandating defibrillators in public venues and spaces were either unfounded, or could be addressed. Loading Defibrillators are completely safe and cannot be misused, he said. 'If they are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest, then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low,' La Gerche said. 'The mandatory placement of defibrillators in public spaces results in awareness and also a degree of predictability, such that when an arrest occurs, the question is, 'where is the defibrillator?', rather than, 'is there a defibrillator?' 'These things save time and save lives.' Sue's son died. Years later, she saved Liam The last thing Liam Birch remembers is a footy being thrown in from the boundary, before his vision went blurry and he hit the ground face-first. Tony Freeman's reaction was instant. He ran over, began CPR, and called for a defibrillator. Within 10 seconds of applying the pads, 19-year-old Birch was 'pretty much back'. 'At first, I thought I was knocked out, but the ambulance let me know that I had a cardiac arrest,' Birch said. Years later, Birch found out the defibrillators at Wallan's Greenhill Reserve, where he was playing that day in 2018, were thanks to Sue Buckman – and the pair shared a tragic connection. Buckman set up Defib For Life after her son Stephen, also 19, went into cardiac arrest while training at Rupertswood Football Club in May 2010. The boys were years apart, but unknowingly rivals – Birch played for Wallan against Rupertswood when he went into cardiac arrest, and Stephen was on the opposing team, preparing to face off against Wallan before he died. Loading Andrew White, a paramedic on the sidelines, tried to save Stephen. He later co-founded Defib For Life, which is behind thousands of Australia's public defibrillators. 'The club didn't have a defibrillator, so all Andrew could do was just to go gung-ho giving his best CPR,' Buckman said. 'A few years later, [things came] full circle. They used a defibrillator [on Liam], and – hello – he's up and running around, as healthy as anything. I'm friends with his family.' On Anzac Day, another player at Rupertswood went into cardiac arrest for the first time since Stephen died 15 years ago. This time, trainers revived the 37-year-old reserves player with two shocks of a defibrillator – the very first defibrillator Defib For Life supplied. The man has since been discharged from hospital. Defib For Life is lobbying the AFL to mandate defibrillators at all levels of the game, Australia-wide, to show it values players equally. The league has not done so and did not respond to questions about the proposal. Buckman, now retired, still lives in a world of 'what-ifs'. What if momentum for her cause slows, and more people end up dead? What if there had been a defibrillator for her son? Would it have saved him? Nobody can know, and after that night at the Palais, Wight feels the same. When he yelled for the show to stop, quiet fell across the audience, and the house lights came on. Staff rushed hundreds of theatre-goers out, and the man who went into cardiac arrest was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene. Loading 'If they had a defibrillator on the scene straight away, they could have been [defibrillating] the guy within 1½ minutes, [or] two minutes of him going down,' Wight said. 'That outcome might have changed it.' Live Nation operates the Palais. A spokesperson for the company said the theatre has operational defibrillators in front-of-house and back-of-house areas, and staff are trained to use them. When this masthead attended a recent show at the theatre, there were no clearly marked defibrillators in the foyer, mezzanine level outside the theatre, or the dress circle. Citing a request for privacy from the dead man's family, Live Nation declined to provide more details about whether a defibrillator was offered to the first responders, the locations of defibrillators at the theatre, and why its defibrillators are unregistered. Ambulance Victoria lauded the courageous efforts of first responders at the Palais. 'We encourage everyone in the community to learn CPR and how to use an AED,' an ambulance spokeswoman said. Experts emphasise that it is not enough for defibrillators to sit on a wall, unused. They need to be registered, properly maintained and truly accessible 24/7. Paratz and La Gerche are among cardiologists leading the Australian Sudden Cardiac Arrest Alliance, a national steering committee advocating for public defibrillators to be mandated. Wight has become passionate about the cause since that night at the Palais. One visceral image motivates him: three women, barely able to move, desperately trying to save a dying man by torchlight on the theatre steps.
