‘Heart attack survival rates the best in ten years’: Daniel Andrews

VICTORIA has the best heart attack survival rates in 10 years — with paramedics getting to call outs faster and more bystanders helping save lives.

MORE Victorians than ever are coming back from cardiac arrests with paramedics increasing their response times and more bystanders helping save lives. Picture: File. Tom Lee.

MORE Victorians than ever are coming back from cardiac arrests with paramedics increasing their response times and more bystanders helping save lives.

State-wide ambulance responses times to cardiac arrests — most of the time brought on by heart attacks — has improved from eight minutes to 7.8 minutes, the latest Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Registry annual report has revealed.

However, those suffering from cardiac arrests are still lucky to live with the survival rate around 35 per cent.

More bystanders are now stepping in to help save lives before paramedics arrive, with the use

public defibrillators for cardiac arrests souring fourfold from 2.8 per cent a decade ago to 11 per cent last financial year.

Premier Daniel Andrews said cardiac arrests now had the best survival rates in Victoria in 10 years.

“Families can have peace of mind that paramedics are now responding faster to cardiac arrests and more bystanders are stepping up to give CPR and defibrillation,” Mr Andrews said.

“Together, this means more lives saved.”

Ambulance Services Minister Jill Hennessy said every second counted when saving someone from a cardiac arrest.

“We’re ensuring all Victorians can get the right emergency care, quickly, and when they need it, with the biggest ever investment in Victoria’s history to cut ambulance response times even further,” she said.

Senudin Porcic, 57, last month suffered a cardiac arrest at a gym in Reservoir.

Mr Porcic said bystanders stepped in with a defibrillator to help save him while paramedics arrived.

“I just realised how helpful the people around me, and I have to thank them for saving my life,” he said.

“Also the ambulance arrived in a really short period of time and continued in giving me a chance to continue my life.”