Stars aligned for policewoman in cardiac arrest

Belinda Jones was fit, healthy and enjoying a typical day when her heart suddenly stopped. The stars aligned for the policewoman when she was saved by a passer-by who knew CPR.

The stars aligned for Belinda Jones the day she suffered a cardiac arrest.

The 43-year-old Melbourne mum had taken the family dog Duke for a bushwalk. Solo. The policewoman then returned home that Thursday before Easter and spent the morning on her own; daughters Grace, 16 and Skye, 11 were at school.

As she had done countless other times, she then drove to her “second home”, the Ringwood Little Athletics Centre, where Ms Jones is a life member, as is her mum Sue Luscombe and where Grace and Skye compete.

Mrs Luscombe joined the committee when her daughter showed an interest in little athletics more than three decades ago.

“It is family,” Ms Jones said. “I wasn’t a champion, I went down (to the club) for the social side of things. I wasn’t fantastic at any of it, I did like the hurdles and high jump, but it was more the atmosphere, it is a good community.”

On this day she was meeting a fellow committee member to help with arrangements for the club’s presentation day. Ms Jones collected the trophies from her car and walked into the clubrooms.

Belinda Jones is reunited for the first time with the team who helped to save her life. L-R Peter Eastwood (FRV), Taylor Marshall (AV), Belinda, Nick Veliades and Andrea Badlee. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Normal, everyday stuff.

Then she collapsed.

A massive blood clot had just lodged in her lungs. No warning. She was fit, healthy and now she was dying.

“The right side of my lung was all a blood clot, and that is what caused the cardiac arrest,” Ms Jones said.

A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops.

Few people survive such a catastrophic event out of a hospital, but here is where it all came together to save this young mum.

She was no longer on her own. Committee member Andrea Badlee had just joined her in the clubhouse and saw her friend collapse.

Ms Badlee raced outside where just one man was running a few laps on the oval.

As luck would have it, that man was Nick Veliades, 41. He is a high performance swimming coach at Nunawading who works with the top juniors in the country. He is also highly trained in CPR. He became her good Samaritan.

As Mr Veliades was doing his laps, with headphones on and music loud, he saw the urgent and desperate flailing of arms as Ms Badlee tried to get his attention.

“From the age of 14 I did lifesaving at the pool and you learn CPR and you learn to rescue people,” Mr Veliades said.

Also a father of two, it is not the first time he has been called on to use his CPR skills or the first life he has helped to save.

As Ms Badlee called triple-0, Mr Veliades started CPR in the critical minutes before paramedics arrived.

Belinda Jones and good Samaritan Nick Veliades who helped save her life because he knew CPR. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Ambulance Victoria says last year there were more cardiac arrests in Victoria than ever before, with paramedics treating 7361 patients, an increase of 6 per cent.

Its annual Shocktober campaign in October helps encourage Victorians to learn or refresh CPR skills, to download the lifesaving app and register as a GoodSAM responder, and to educate themselves on where local automated external defibrillators (AED) are located.

The Ringwood Little Athletics Centre has an AED. This, along with Ms Badlee’s quick action and Mr Veliades’ CPR skills, helped to double Ms Jones’ chances of survival.

But she wasn’t out of the woods.

“What happened from what I can figure out, is that when Nick did CPR it dislodged some of the clot and they were able to revive me,” Ms Jones said.

“When the paramedics arrived they were working on me for an hour and a half. I was clinically dead for 25 minutes and had another cardiac arrest at Box Hill hospital. The team there were amazing.”

Belinda with Nick Veliades and the Ambulance Victoria paramedics and Fire Rescue Victoria members who attended on the day. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Ms Jones spent the next 27 days in ICU at the hospital, but is now home and back to walking Duke for three to four kilometres a day to regain her strength.

On Monday she met with Mr Veliades for the first time since that day.

“If it wasn’t for Andrea and Nick and all the first responders I had about a 10 per cent chance of living; early intervention is so important,” Ms Jones said.

“I can’t thank them enough. It was so lovely to meet everyone and put faces to the names I had heard so much about.

“Someone was looking after me that day because it could have happened when I was walking the dog on my own, or when I was at home alone or when I was driving.”

And what were her first words to the man who saved her?

“It was pretty emotional and I tried not to cry, but I said ‘Because of you I got to go home’.”

Mr Veliades said he tends to downplay things. “I might have said ‘no worries’, but I am a dad, when I saw her with her two kids it made it even more special.”

Restart A Heart Day on October 16 is part of the Shocktober campaign and is a global initiative to raise awareness and educate the community about learning CPR and how to use an AED.

For more details visit: ambulance.vic.gov.au/shocktober

Cardiac arrest facts:

• Around 20 Victorians have a cardiac arrest every day, only one in 10 survive.

• Survival rates are improved when bystanders call triple-0 (000), know CPR and shock using an AED

• St John Ambulance Victoria is working to install more publicly available AEDs via its Defib In Your Street campaign. The non-profit is also calling on the Victorian government to make them mandatory in all public buildings, including schools, libraries, sports facilities, theatres and prisons.