St John delivers life-saving equipment to WA public

St John WA’s Community First Responder has been expanded, with 23 new defibrillators installed in the Perth metropolitan area.

All of the new defibs are publicly accessible to the WA public.

New locations include St John Health centres in Joondalup and Cockburn, 20 ambulance stations and St John’s central hub in Belmont.

“These defibs will be available to the community 24/7, building a more resilient WA and could save lives,” St John community manager Sally Simmonds said.

The St John WA Community First Responder program is a free service that aims to get defibrillators to cardiac arrest victims in the vital minutes before an ambulance arrives.

When a person unexpectedly collapses due to a cardiac arrest, bystanders may not know if there is a defibrillator close by.

Organisations that are part of the St John Community First Responder program have their defibrillator location and a contact person registered with St John. 

This helps a defibrillator to be retrieved as soon as possible and applied to the patient in the time-critical period before an ambulance arrives. 

Sudden cardiac arrest can strike any person regardless of age, gender or health status and about 33,000 Australians die every year from this condition.

The single key contributing factor to improving survival rates of sudden cardiac arrest is the time taken to administer early CPR and defibrillation.

Where CPR and defibrillation are administered within five minutes of an event, studies have shown dramatic improvements in survival rates.

Locations that become part of the CFRS have the option to display their AED in the St John First Responder App.

To register your AED email first.responder@stjohnwa.com.au

To find the nearest AED to your location, install the St John First Responder App on your smartphone and click on the ‘Defibrillators’ screen.