South Gippsland Specialist School receives lifesaving device

FOLLOWING the recent month-long ‘Shocktober’ campaign, St John Ambulance Victoria awarded a defibrillator to South Gippsland Specialist School (SGSS), presenting it to principal Heather Braden on Tuesday.

‘Shocktober’ highlights the vital nature of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDS) and CPR in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest.

Both South Gippsland and Bass Coast Shires are prone to high rates of cardiac arrest, highlighting the importance of defibrillator availability and knowledge of where the life-saving devices are located.

While SGSS already had a defibrillator in the office area, the new device will be available to those using the school pool.

“Our pool is used by the community; Muir Swim School use it after school, so it means the defibrillator is accessible to the community groups that use our pool,” principal Braden said.

SGSS is one of five community-focused organisations to win a St John Ambulance G3 Elite Semi-Automatic Defibrillator as part of the organisation’s ‘Shocktober’ promotion.

Thousands of entries were received across the State.

The defibrillator talks people through the entire usage process, meaning it can be used by those without training.

Anyone with a publicly accessible defibrillator is encouraged to register it with Ambulance Victoria through its website.

Locations of registered defibrillators are shown on the website and triple zero call takers can notify callers where a nearby defibrillator is located when required.