This is a re-post from the Lara Fire Brigade Facebook Page. Well done Lara!
Yesterday our members were paged to a grass and stubble fire on the corner of Plains Road and Flinders Ave Lara.
Our Tanker 1 was first on scene quickly backed up by our colleagues from Little River CFA and followed on by our Tanker 2 and Corio CFA Tanker.
Whilst actively involved in the fire fight in the paddocks near a farm house the incident controller in Lara Tanker 1 was advised by the Central CFA dispatcher, VicFire, that Ambulance Victoria had received a call for a person reported suffering smoke inhalation.
Tanker 1 broke away from the fire fight to look for the reported injured person. They subsequently found a person lying near a tractor complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath.
They assessed him decided to treat it as a heart attack and applied our defibrillator just in case he deteriorated.
That was a good move as no more than 5 minutes after they had the Defib pads on the patient he started to go quiet, change colour and the Defib identified that his heart was in trouble and advised to shock the patient.
They followed procedures and shocked the patient, where upon he regained composure, asked what had happened and actually stated he was feeling much better.
The team had in fact acted so quickly that the patient had the best possible outcome and limited the extension of cardiac and any possible brain damage from the cardiac arrest (Fibrillation). They continued to look after him until Ambulance Vic arrived on scene and transported him to hospital.
Volunteer Firefighters David Love, Michelle Cable and Brian Stevens pictured below should be recognized for what they achieved yesterday, along with all of the CFA structures, including the dispatchers who tied the information together about the 2 calls for help, and also the other CFA members who kept working on the fire.
We also need to remember all of the members who raised money to buy the Defib and the community members who donated money for them as well. This one event, that has saved and changed a life, is in fact the result of a whole lot of little things that our community has made possible.
