Parents boost skills

By Dion Teasdale
A YOUNG mother’s near-death experience has prompted a group of parents and friends from Healesville’s Auskick program to learn life-saving CPR skills.
As featured in last week’s Mail, Healesville resident Sharon Christie suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while attending the local Auskick program with her son two months ago.
Sharon, 36, was brought back from the brink of death three times by a group of fellow Auskick parents who administered CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) until paramedics arrived on the scene.
The incident sent shock waves through the local community and last week a group of 15 people, made up of Auskick parents and volunteers, and Sharon’s family and friends, completed a Level 1 CPR training course.
Healesville Auskick treasurer, Trish Hegarty, who organised the course, held over two nights and run by St John Ambulance, said the group was motivated by Sharon’s close call.
“When something happens like it did with Sharon, it makes you realise how easily life can be taken away, and how, if you have the skills, you might be able to make a difference,” she said.
“A lot of us saw what happened to Sharon as a wake-up call and we wanted to get some training that might help us deal with similar situations in the future.”
Joining Sharon’s mother and sister, and local parents in doing the course, was 15-year-old Lilydale High School student and Auskick coach, Glen Sanders.
“I think Sharon’s experience scared the hell out of us all and it definitely inspired me to get some training,” he said.
“The training we did only took a few hours and it was really good to do. They are great skills to have, even if you never have to use them.”
Healesville Auskick coordinator, Daren Pryor, said he was pleased to see something positive come out of Sharon’s near-death experience.
“What Sharon went through, and the impact it had on the Auskick club, really triggered something in people,” he said.
“It wasn’t a nice thing to happen at all, but it did shake us all up a bit and motivated many of our members and supporters to get trained.
“If something like this ever happens again, and we hope it doesn’t, we have lots of people on standby who know what to do.”