It was a cold, wet, dark morning that had the Doreen CFA assisting with the ANZAC Dawn Service little did we expect for a woman to present to members near the Doreen FCV advising us that she was unwell, feeling faint, tingling & nauseous
We are not an EMR (Emergency Medical Response) Brigade perhaps we should be given our location but it appears that there is not enough funding to roll out this worthwhile initiative to Volunteer Brigades.
It was very pleasing to see the calm and professional manner the patient was dealt with by our members.
The patient was taken to the rear of the Doreen FCV and made comfortable where it was established that she was indeed unwell.
A decision was made to call an Ambulance via 000 rather than the Radio so that we did not alarm the patient.
The advise from the ESTA dispatcher was to locate a Defibrillator given the Patients symptoms.
We are fortunate that we have Defibrillators on two of our Trucks (one of these was partially funded by a grant from the Doreen Branch of the Bendigo Bank)
Thankfully we did not have to use one.
The Ambulance arrived and after some precautionary checks she was released to go home.
It was indeed a pleasant surprise to have our patient Naomi arrive at the Station one Sunday with a Basket of Chocolates as thank you for the assistance she received at the ANZAC Dawn Service.
Naomi told us on that dark morning fearing she might collapse if she could get to the people in the CFA uniforms that we would be able to care of her.
The Brigade recently decided to purchase three more defibrillators to ensure that no matter where our units are we will have access to this life saving technology.
At a cost of nearly $3000 a unit we will no doubt have to fund raise to pay for them.
So if you would like to donate a dollar or two please feel free to contact us
Author: Robert Bury