SAVING LIVES AFTER PERSONAL TRAGEDY

 

On a cold night in May 2010, Sue Buckman was at home preparing the evening meal. The phone rang. It was someone from the local football club where her son was training that night. They said he wasn't well and she should come down to get him. She expected that he had over-indulged on the roast-beef rolls and had an upset tummy.

 

When Sue arrived, there seemed to be an unusual flurry of activity going on in the club rooms. She started to panic. Inside, she found her son lying on the table and being attended to by people with worried looks on their faces. Apparently, he had collapsed and, despite the efforts of a doctor and paramedic who were fathers of other boys in the team, they were having difficulty reviving him. They had already rung for the local ambulance but there was none available because they were attending to non-life threatening calls. The air ambulance was too far away.

 

An ambulance from another area finally came. They rushed Sue's son off to Royal Melbourne Hospital. She followed. When she arrived she was ushered to a waiting room. Before long, a number of doctors entered the room. They told her that her son had suffered a cardiac arrest and, because of the length of time between the incident and getting to hospital, he was clinically dead but being kept alive by a life support system. She was given the choice of leaving him in a vegetative state with no hope of recovery or agreeing to terminate his life. She reluctantly chose the latter.

 

After the funeral, Sue sought a medical explanation for her son's death. She was told he had had a congenital heart disease which was never identified. As a result, Sue had her two other children tested. The son was OK. However, her daughter was diagnosed with the same condition as her dead brother. She was implanted with a defibrillator which would be triggered if she suffered a heart attack. Within six months, she did have an attack and the defibrillator saved her life.

 

Sue then decided to do something about it. If it could happen to her child, it could equally happen to other children with the same symptoms. She wanted to ensure that they had a better chance of surviving. So, she set up Defib for Life. Her initial aim was to provide 40 defibrillators to sporting clubs in her local area. The local council assisted her with the funding for that. Then, the Bendigo Bank came on board after hearing of her tragedy and her plans to improve outcomes from a cardiac incident. The bank has been extremely generous and helpful.

 

Sue's role is a full-time one but she hopes to wind down a bit soon. Not only does she sell the message about defibrillators, she also acts as a counsellor to survivors and their families. 

 

Since the early days of this project, over 3000 defibrillators have been distributed to clubs and businesses around the state. In that time, 36 lives have been saved. One of the most recent incidents involved a 14 year-old boy who was working at McDonalds. He collapsed and his young colleagues saved him by using the defibrillator. 

 

The cost of a defibrillator is $2500.