By Carolyn Webb/The Age
Ten minutes before the final siren of the 2016 AFL grand final, Yarraville’s Rob McCarthy’s heart raced as his beloved Western Bulldogs fended off the Sydney Swans.
He turned to a fellow fan sitting in the MCG Southern Stand and joked that he hoped there was an ambulance parked outside the ground, “because if the Doggies win I’m going to have a heart attack”.
Two minutes later, Mr McCarthy collapsed from a cardiac arrest. He was not conscious as the Bulldogs triumphed, but is alive to savour the victory today because an off-duty paramedic saved his life.
Now fit and well, after having a stent put into a clogged artery, the father of one returned to the ‘G on Sunday, Father’s Day, to launch the Heart Foundation’s Big Heart Appeal.
A grateful Mr McCarthy, 65, warned men over 40 to get their heart health checked with their GPs.
The Heart Foundation released a survey showing one in five people wouldn’t know how to recognise a cardiac arrest, and 40 per cent would not feel confident to administer CPR.
Mr McCarthy’s cardiologist, Heart Foundation board member Dr Nick Cox, said that in an emergency someone must be prepared to act.
Even untrained bystanders could “have a go” at CPR and using a defibrillator. “You can’t make things worse, and you’ll probably save a life.” For every minute of inaction, a patient’s chances of survival went down by 10 per cent, he said.
At the 2016 grand final, off-duty paramedic Liam Moore, 25, was barracking for the Swans near Mr McCarthy when the call went out for help. By the time he laid Mr McCarthy on the concrete between two rows of seats, there was no pulse. Mr Moore performed CPR for four or five minutes before the defibrillator was administered.
Mr McCarthy remembers sitting up on a stretcher as the players received their medals, asking bystanders, “Have the Doggies won?” and giving the thumbs-up as he was carried away.
Although Mr McCarthy had walked regularly and wasn’t a smoker or a heavy drinker, his father had suffered three heart attacks. And 20 months previously, Rob had suffered a heart attack at home.
“It doesn’t matter how fit you are, you’ve really got to get yourself checked.”
