A HEART attack nearly killed Frankston father Duncan Rodger last year. Nearly six months on, he has been reunited with the paramedics who helped save his life.
Rodger, 44, was asleep last September when his wife Kim noticed his breathing had changed. She quickly phoned 000, but the situation soon worsened.
Shortly after calling emergency services her husband stopped breathing. She began administering CPR, and kept going for eight minutes while paramedics arrived. Rodger said that the quick thinking saved his life.
“If she didn’t know CPR I wouldn’t have made it. If she didn’t know it there’d be no chance I’m here right now. It’s very important to stay on top of that,” Rodger said. “For the general public you want to refresh it every now and then – it’s very important someone knows CPR.
“I went to bed feeling like I had indigestion, so I had an antacid. My wife realised I was breathing funny when I was asleep, and my arm was hanging out the side of the bed. She tried waking me up, but I didn’t wake up, and once she had done that I stopped breathing. She started CPR and called the ambos, and they worked on me for a while, while I went into cardiac arrest.”
Kim Rodger said “while I was on the phone to 000, Duncan stopped breathing. I had to start CPR straight away. I never thought the first time I did CPR would be on my husband.”
Paramedics took over and helped keep Duncan Rodger alive. Last week at Ballam Park, he reunited with the emergency services workers who saved him.
“I owe my life to them. If not for them I wouldn’t have spent Christmas with my family,” Rodger said. “My wife as well is the reason I’m still here. They all worked together to help me, and I can’t put into words just how thankful I am.”
Rodger has made a full recovery since his heart attack. Mobile intensive care ambulance paramedic Nathan Greenland says that if CPR hadn’t been administered at the scene, he would have died. “Kim recognised something wasn’t right and she started the first part of the chain of survival by calling triple zero early and starting CPR until help could arrive,” Greenland said. “It’s great to know that Duncan is now home and his kids have their dad back.”
Rodger has also urged people to be more aware of their health. “Swallow your pride and go to the doctor more often. I’ve never been to the doctor so many times lately. Leading up to the heart attack I never had a normal doctor and I’d never go – I couldn’t remember the last time I went,” he said.
Ambulance Victoria estimates that around 80 per cent of cardiac arrests happen at home.
To learn more about CPR training visit ambulance.vic.gov.au/call-push-shock