West Australian farmer Nigel Norwood survived a cardiac arrest thanks to the calm and informed actions of his wife, teenage sons and fellow campers.
The 47-year-old father of two came perilously close to losing his life during a camping trip at Alexander Bay, a pristine beach about 100 kilometres from the nearest hospital in Esperance.
Now, the Scaddan farmer and his family are urging others to have their heart health checked.
Lynne Norwood said there had been no obvious signs to suggest that something was wrong with her husband’s heart.
But about 6pm on January 28 everything happened all at once.
“We’d been out on the beach all afternoon and we were about to get ready for dinner,” she said.
“Both boys said to me ‘Mum, Mum, something’s wrong with Dad’.
“By this stage his head had fallen forward. He was unresponsive.”
With no mobile coverage, Mrs Norwood ran to access another camping party’s Starlink satellite.
Meanwhile 16-year-old Liam, aided by a bystander, performed CPR on his father.
The eldest son Bevan, 19, raced to retrieve a St John defibrillator from the toilet block.
“Everything was going through my mind,” Mrs Norwood said.
“The visual side of things was very confronting.”
After the third shock from the defibrillator there was “massive elation” when they felt a pulse.
“Nigel was placed into the recovery position and we could visually see that he’d become responsive and things were starting to significantly improve,” Mrs Norwood said.
“When Nigel was in the recovery position the boys and I were able to communicate and have a cuddle.”
Heart check-ups vital
Mr Norwood was taken to Esperance Hospital and then flown to Fiona Stanley in Perth.
After several weeks of recovery he was now feeling “fine”.
“It’s like it never happened,” he said.
His few remaining memories from the dramatic afternoon include catching a herring and walking to the toilet block.
However, he said his brush with death had given him a timely reminder to “live in the now”.
He urged others to “go and have a check-up”, acknowledging the specific dangers facing farmers who often worked alone in areas where mobile reception was limited.
Mrs Norwood stressed the importance of knowing the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest.
“We were conveyed to Perth … thinking that Nigel had a heart attack,” she said.
“It wasn’t until all the tests came back clear that the medical staff said it was cardiac arrest.
“When your heart stops you just need to get it going again.
“The two need to work in conjunction with each other, the CPR and the defib.”
She also emphasised the importance of having first-aid training while being aware of the locations of portable St John defibrillators.
St John WA paramedic and resuscitation improvement specialist Jason Belcher said it was a remarkable success story.
“Nigel would unequivocally not have survived without the efforts of family and bystanders,” he said.
“For every minute without chest compressions and an AED [defibrillator] the chance of survival drops by 10 per cent.”
St John has 11,000 registered defibrillators across Western Australia.
‘Fresh in my memory’
If it was not for the attention he paid during a recent first-aid course at his Perth high school Liam Norwood is adamant his father would not be alive today.
“Dad wouldn’t be sitting next to me if it wasn’t for that training,” he said.
“How lucky I am that it was still fresh in my memory.”
Bevan Norwood told the ABC it was as though his father had “fallen asleep” in his camp chair.
“We instantly knew something wasn’t quite right,” he said.
“You just think about the job at hand and what needs to be done.”
