A Reluctant Hero: A Story of Heart
A Reluctant Hero: A Story of Heart
[Picture supplied WIN News Bendigo]
Lee is a 30-year resident of Heathcote, regional Australia; a tight-knit community that she’s deeply connected to. An Ambulance Community Officer, Registered Nurse, and GoodSAM Responder, or ‘GoodSAM-er’ as she refers to it, has responded to 18 cases of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) across her roles. While most of us would consider this admirable, if you asked her, she’d tell you she’s just doing her job. But recently, Lee responded to a GoodSAM alert that hit close to home.
A young mother, out for a morning jog with her friends and 10-month-old baby in her arms, collapsed without warning. “She just said she felt dizzy and one of her friends grabbed the baby out of her arms,” Lee recounts. "And then she fell forward, hitting the ground full force.”
The woman’s face was badly injured with the fall breaking her teeth. Immediately, her friends responded—one called 000 while the other began CPR. Lee praised their courage, "they’re the real heroes here. They were untrained, but they didn’t hesitate, and that’s what made all the difference.”
After receiving the GoodSAM alert, Lee was on the scene within two minutes. As she turned the corner, she saw the chaos; someone lying in the middle of the road, someone doing CPR, and someone on the phone, surrounded by a crowd, including young children watching in shock. She thought, “right-o, let's go”.
“I jumped out of my car, grabbed my CellAED® and medical kit, and let the responders know they were doing great,” she recalls. “I could hear the triple zero operator on the phone, so I let them know who I was and reassured everyone that I knew what to do.”
The young man performing CPR didn’t falter, which gave Lee the vital time she needed to stick her CellAED® onto the young mother’s bare chest and put a breathing device in place. Lee guided the bystanders, calmly directing the other responders to help take turns with CPR and manage the crowd.
After analysing the woman’s heart rhythm, CellAED® advised and delivered a shock. Lee then took over and started performing CPR (as CellAED® instructs the responder to do). As the first few critical minutes passed, Lee’s mind raced. “Why hasn't my SAS ambulance pager gone off to say Heathcote Ambulance has been dispatched?” she wondered. “If I have to wait for the Seymour or Bendigo guys, I might have 40 minutes before an ambulance is on site.” While attending to the young woman, Lee grabbed her phone and called her ambulance team manager, telling him, “I’ve got a 30-year-old in sudden cardiac arrest.”
Shortly afterward, a second shock was advised and delivered. By the third heart rhythm analysis no shock was advised, and that’s when Lee felt for a pulse. “I’ve got ROSC*!” she told the operator. “That’s when I knew we had a chance.” Out of the 18 SCAs Lee has attended, this was the first time she has witnessed a patient’s heart start beating again.
The local Heathcote ambulance crew arrived minutes later, and Lee and her team manager worked together to stabilise the woman before the advanced life support and mobile intensive care ambulances (MICA) arrived. The patient was then airlifted to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Within the week, the young mum had received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) to regulate her heart and was back home with her three young kids and husband.
In Lee’s words, “the chain of survival just worked.” Each link in that chain, from the young man’s immediate CPR to the 000 call and the arrival of GoodSAM responders like herself, played a crucial role in bridging the gap before the ambulances arrived. It was these critical steps and how quickly they had been actioned that made all the difference to the outcome.
“The fact that the young guy started CPR right away, that was the difference, the difference between getting her back and losing her,” Lee said.
Although Lee has attended countless SCAs before, this one was different. Lee’s own kids had gone to school with the woman’s husband and sisters. "That could have been any one of my kids,” she said she kept thinking as she was attending to the woman. “I’ve got 11 grandchildren, and I just kept thinking, ‘What if this was one of my kids?’ I’d want someone to step in and do everything they could, and I would be so thankful for that.”
For Lee, being a ‘GoodSAM-er’ isn’t about recognition—it’s about giving back to her community with the skills she has. “Being a ‘GoodSAM-er’ is something that I can do to use the tools that I have to get the result we got, which is getting someone back to their family.”
She urges everyone to get involved, trained or not: "People have this idea they need first aid training to be a responder, but you don’t. Just help. Anything you do will give someone a chance at survival.”
“If you do nothing these people will die, and sometimes they die anyway, but if you try, you give them the best chance of a good outcome, which in this case, was giving three kids their mum back, but in other cases, it might be the chance to say goodbye.”
Lee swears by her CellAED®, calling it “idiot proof.” Unlike other AEDs, CellAED® is portable and easy-to-use, designed to make saving a life accessible to anyone.
“You just snap, peel, stick,” she explains. “It’s not as intimidating as those big devices that are more complicated, and you don't need to be trained like me to use it.”
Pictured: Bernadette (Survivor) and Lee (Responder).
Lee keeps her CellAED® in an insulated lunchbox with gloves, a mask, and shears, so she is always ready to go. Although she’d never carry another AED everywhere, her CellAED® does go with her everywhere, offering peace of mind she says she’ll never go without again.
*Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is the resumption of a sustained heart rhythm after a sudden cardiac arrest
The information shared in this story is based solely on the interviewee’s account and personal experience. We do not have access to any additional details beyond what has been provided. Our thoughts are with those affected by sudden cardiac arrest.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sudden cardiac arrest, help is available Lifeline Australia - 13 11 14