Allen Janssens recently won our Branch Rescue of the Month

On Wednesday night, 19th October 2016, Allen Janssens, a member of Newport SLSC was on his way home from work and just arrived at the Redfern rail station noticing a commotion on the platform . On investigation, he found two men who had just commenced CPR on a young female unconscious patient. Allen without hesitation introduced himself as a lifesaver and offered his assistance at the same time checking that someone had sent for an ambulance. Allen made a quick assessment of the situation and noted they had a first aid kit and the gentlemen on the head (station first aider) was delivering two breaths every 30 compressions and had both a mask and gloves. Allen then co-ordinated with the other gentlemen to deliver the 30 compressions swapping over every 5th cycle. They continued to deliver the compression for over 15 minutes during which time the police had arrived and were directing the crowds away on the busy platform as each train pulled into the station. The paramedics arrived soon after the police and after their quick assessment set up the defib and pads and administered a drug to the patient whilst Allen maintained the delivery of compressions. The paramedics then took over the resuscitation and delivered a shock. After a couple of seconds, the young woman began to breathe but remained unconscious.

Through the amazing power of his daughter’s facebook and 6 degrees of separation the family of the young women contacted Allen three days later to thank him for helping save their 27-year-old daughter who had suffered a cardiac arrest. The young woman was put into an induced coma for 36 hours and has since had a device implanted to prevent a reoccurrence of the problem. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Allen’s selfless act took great courage as he showed an amazing strength in assisting two other good Samaritans in carrying out CPR on the young woman.

Allen paid homage to the 10 years of Surf lifesaving training and proficiencies he had completed which gave him the courage and confidence to provide valuable assistance in saving the young girls life. Allen also expressed the importance of communication during the resuscitation between the team which was extremely clear and enabled them to function efficiently as a team.