Picture this: a worker collapses in the office from what may be a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Someone calls emergency medical services, and an employee who’s had first-aid training proceeds to give the victim cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after confirming the lack of breathing and pulse. But there are no defibrillators around to properly restart the heart, hence rendering the CPR efforts lacking in reviving the collapsed worker, and the ambulance does not arrive sooner to save this person’s life.
According to 2012 NSW data, approximately a third of ambulance calls occur during working hours: 25% were from a workplace, and 59% were deceased when the ambulance arrived. As an organisation, it is our duty to ensure that workers are given the “highest level of protection […] as practicable” as per the current model of WHS Act. It is therefore instructive to take after the practices of other companies in risk assessment and duty of care in accordance with WHS regulations.
Sudden cardiac arrest is Australia’s #1 killer. Cases of SCA that happen outside of hospitals only have a 12% survival rate, accounting for an average of 30,000 annual deaths in Australia. Bystander action involving quick administration of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) within 3-5 minutes after collapse, coupled with the use of an out-of-hospital and portable defibrillator like an AED (automated external defibrillators), vastly increases the chance of survival for the affected individual — from 6% up to 74%.
