A LIFESAVING smartphone app that alerts off-duty paramedics to anyone nearby having a heart attack has been rolled out in Victoria.
The 'good Samaritan' app, called GoodSAM, launched by Ambulance Victoria sends an alert to registered off-duty first responders - such as paramedics, nurses, doctors and surf lifesavers - to notify them when someone nearby has suffered from cardiac arrest, after a call is made to triple-zero.
And the app has already helped save the life of two Victorians.
Keith Young was preparing a family dinner at home in Narre Warren, in Melbourne's outer east, before getting ready to fly out to Queensland on holiday with his wife Kathryn the next morning.
"We'd just had a great weekend with friends staying over, and apart from Keith complaining of mild indigestion earlier that day, we really had little warning of what was to come next," said Kathryn.
Suddenly she heard a thud from the kitchen.
"I ran back, he was turning grey, he was unresponsive."
Keith had just suffered from cardiac arrest. As he turned greyer by the second a family member called triple zero while his wife turned him on his side to clear his airways and started CPR.
It was at this time that a neighbour's phone buzzed.
Off-duty flight paramedic Darren Murphy had received a phone alert via the GoodSAM app. Darren had just signed up with Ambulance Victoria's pilot of the new GoodSAM app just two weeks earlier.
He immediately hopped on his bike and rode to Keith's house a few minutes away.
"As we worked frantically to save Keith, suddenly a stranger ran in the front door," remembers Kathryn. "It happened so fast."
Moments later, Keith let out a groan.
"I remember thinking, oh my god he's with us," said Kathryn.
Ambulance Victoria rolled out the GoodSAM app following a four-month pilot phase where more than 1100 Ambulance Victoria paramedics registered as responders.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker described the app as a game changer.
"GoodSAM will play a key role in helping save more of the over 6000 Victorians who suffer a cardiac arrest away from hospital every year."
He said the two lives saved during the pilot phase highlights the impact trained bystanders can have in the critical minutes between a triple zero call and emergency services arriving, but added it was not a replacement for emergency services.
Every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces someone's chance of survival from cardiac arrest by 10 per cent.
"When it comes to cardiac arrest, seconds count," said Associated Professor Walker. "Bystanders have a vital role to play while emergency services make their way to the scene, and GoodSAM is all about harnessing that."
The GoodSAM app has been operating in London for more than a year and is being taken up by other ambulance services in the UK and internationally.
Ambulance Victoria has partnered with St John Ambulance, Chevra Hatzolah, the Country Fire Authority, and Life Saving Victoria to grow the GoodSAM responder community.
