Listen: Desperate bid to revive teen caught on harrowing triple-0 call

A 19-year-old who went in to cardiac arrest following a severe asthma attack was “fairly certain” he was going to die until the quick-thinking actions of his girlfriend’s parents. LISTEN TO THE TRIPLE-0 CALL

A teenager who went into cardiac arrest following a severe asthma attack only survived the ordeal thanks to the quick thinking actions of his girlfriend’s dad.

Josh Graham was just 19 when his loved ones feared the worst.
His lips turned blue and he stopped breathing on the evening of February 14.

Joshua Graham suffered a life-threatening asthma attack. Picture: Patrick Woods

Mr Graham had suffered from asthma since he was a kid, but it was the severe attack he had while staying at girlfriend Holly McMillan’s parents’ house that was unlike any other he’d experienced.

“I was hitting my asthma pump a lot, and I said to Holly, ‘can you get your parents … This is really bad’,” Mr Graham said.

“I was fairly certain I was going to die.

It was the actions of Kerry McMillan – Holly’s dad – that ensured the teen would days later wake from an induced coma and finally make a full recovery.

“Lots of things were going through my head, but mainly ‘oh crap, here we go’,” Mr McMillan said. 

“But the hardest thing to do, which I knew I had to do, was to keep calm and keep him from slipping away.”

Kerry McMillan performed CPR on Joshua Graham until paramedics arrived. Picture: Patrick Woods

While Mr McMillan, a former firefighter previously trained in CPR, worked to keep Mr Graham alive, his wife Rebecca – on the phone to QAS – counted the pace for CPR to take place.
“1 … 2 … 3 … 4,” Ms McMillan called out the pace as dictated by Emergency Medical Dispatcher Paul Tudball, whose calm voice rang out of the phone’s loudspeaker as the emergency unfolded.

“That day stood out to me given what went on in the call,” Mr Tudball said.

“There was an emotional connection between (Kerry) and (Josh) and between myself and (Kerry).

“There were a few things said in the call, like Kerry heckling Josh to wake up.”

Throughout the harrowing Triple-0 call, provided to The Sunday Mail, a composed Mr Tudball directed the McMillans on how to keep Josh alive until paramedics arrived on scene.

“Josh, Josh! He’s passing out, his lips are going blue, what can we do?” Mr McMillan yelled down the phone, before he’s told to perform compressions.

“Come on buddy, come on, do me a favour, come on buddy,” Mr McMillan says while performing CPR on Mr Graham, who remains without memory of the ordeal.

Mr McMillan managed to keep Mr Graham alive for the arrival of a team of highly skilled paramedics, including advance care paramedics Jason McGauchie and Karri Thomas.

QAS workers Kari Thomas, Paul Tudball and Jason McGauchie with Joshua Graham, Rebecca McMillan and Kerry McMillan. Picture: Patrick Woods

Ms Thomas urged all adults to learn the basics of how to save a life.

“Educate yourself in it and take the time to learn the courses,” she said.

“You never prepare for the worst thing to happen but in the event it does happen, the last thing you’d want to do is have this going on and not be able to do anything at all. 

“The feeling of helplessness (and) not being able to do anything to help your loved one would stay with you forever.”

Originally published as Listen: Desperate bid to revive teen caught on harrowing triple-0 call