By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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A CARDIAC arrest suffered by a player at a game last month has spurred the Southern Football League to plead for a state-funded roll-out of defibrillators in all sport venues.
SFL chief executive Wayne Holdsworth said the league would take a lead role in the campaign to prevent a fatality on the field.
The 39-year-old Skye reserves player almost died during a practice match at Dingley on March 31.
There was no defibrillator at the Dingley clubrooms, so the unconscious, non-breathing player could not be defibrillated until paramedics arrived. Skye and Dingley trainers performed CPR in the meantime.
MICA paramedics arrived 10 minutes later and worked on the player for more than 30 minutes before taking him to Monash Medical Centre. At time of going to press, he was in a critical condition.
A patient’s chances of survival are considered highest if defibrillation occurs within a few minutes.
“We see it as absolutely critical to have one in every sporting facility – not just for footy but for the whole community,” Holdsworth said. “We can’t afford to fund it ourselves. It’s a shame that it has to get to this stage for some action to take place.”
Dingley Football Club had applied to Bendigo Bank for funding for a defibrillator through a Defib Your Club For Life program.
“It wouldn’t have hurt to have had a defibrillator there,” Dingley president Leigh Menzel said. “Just the week before, I’d said to someone I just pray nothing happens while we wait.”
He said the club had previously been fund-raising for a defibrillator, which costs more than $2000. “But we’re busting our guts just to keep our heads above water.”
Defib Your Club For Life director Andrew White said he hadn’t yet received Dingley’s application for a defibrillator. “We can’t accept it until [sponsor] Bendigo Bank signs off on the funding for the application first.”
Mr White, a paramedic who has raised about $1.5million for more than 700 defibrillators around the state, said demand for defibrillators outstripped his group’s funding.
The case underlined the need for more funding from wealthy institutions such as the AFL and the state government, he said.
As of last year, the state government had funded 86 publicly-available defibrillators.
State treasurer Kim Wells’ wife was twice revived from cardiac arrest while at work at a Royal Children’s Hospital outpatient clinic last month. Mr Wells, in a videoed interview, stressed the importance of a defibrillator to his wife’s survival.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister David Davis did not respond to the Weekly before deadline.
