The 10-minute search for the device that saved a Sydney man’s life

Rob Duggan was on his morning coffee run two weeks ago when he saw a man collapse in the distance.

“I could see straight away that he wasn’t breathing,” said Duggan, a police officer on parental leave with his five-month-old daughter, Audrene. “I parked my daughter up about five metres away, put the brake on the pram ... and I just got down and started CPR.”

Sanjeet Hooda (right) thanks Rob Duggan for stepping in and saving his father’s life. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Dharm Singh Hooda, an otherwise healthy 66-year-old grandfather, had just finished his daily morning walk around Elara Sporting Fields in Marsden Park when he went into cardiac arrest.

Duggan’s quick thinking, and an off-duty paramedic who raced to the scene after receiving an alert on the GoodSAM app, kept Hooda alive. He had performed CPR many times in 15 years as a cop, but this was the first time someone had pulled through.

“I​​ feel pretty happy he’s on the mend,” he said.

Hooda is now recovering in Westmead Hospital. He is in a rare club – only 10 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest survive.

His cardiologist, Dr Pramesh Kovoor, said Hooda’s condition was improving, but he had suffered neurological damage because of a delay in defibrillation.

“He’s expected to be in the hospital probably for two to three weeks in total, in contrast to somebody who would have required maybe a few days in the hospital if they received a shock within three minutes,” Kovoor said.

When Hooda collapsed, his friend, Dinesh Kumar, ran to the childcare centre across the road to see if they had an automated external defibrillator (AED). They did not. Nor could he find one in the Coles about 100 metres away (a Coles spokesperson confirmed the store had a working AED near the service desk at the time). Finally, a policeman responding to the triple-zero call arrived with a defibrillator from the local medical centre.

Dharm Singh Hooda with grandson Pulkit the day before his cardiac arrest.

Duggan said there was about seven to 10 minutes from when Hooda collapsed until the first shock “It all happened so quick. You don’t really have time to think: ‘where is a defib?’”

Kovoor, who helped former yellow Wiggle Greg Page set up the Heart of the Nation charity after treating Page’s sudden cardiac arrest in 2020, has urged NSW to follow South Australia in mandating AEDs in all government buildings and vehicles including public buses, trains, and emergency vehicles.

Health Minister Ryan Park said he had met with Kovoor and his team, but did not say whether the government was considering law changes.

“There are almost 4700 publicly accessible AEDs registered with the GoodSAM app in NSW,” he said. “It’s not as simple as having an AED nearby, what really makes a difference is people knowing how to use one.”

A week after the incident, Duggan was walking past the park bench where he had delivered CPR when he ran into Dharm Singh Hooda’s son, Sanjeet, who thanked him for saving his father’s life.

“Because of these [bystanders], our dad is with us,” he said.

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