KEY POINTS:
Todd Maihi had spent the last year grieving over the death of both of his brothers in 2007. One had suffered a heart attack and Mr Maihi had used CPR to try to save him but it had not brought him back.
Doctors told him the heart attack
had been too big for CPR to help, but Mr Maihi had still felt dreadful guilt.
On October 18, almost a year to the day since that tragedy, the Auckland Downer EDI Works maintenance worker was working at the intersection of Broadway and St Marks Rd in Newmarket. From across the road he saw a cyclist fall to the street.
His first thought was the middle-aged, grey-haired man in good shape had simply fallen off his bike. Then he saw him convulsing.
Mr Maihi and his workmates grabbed road cones from their work site and rushed to cordon off the fallen cyclist, who had suffered a massive heart attack.
It was clear the fallen man was seriously unwell. He was gasping for air and turning pale. Mr Maihi moved him into the recovery position, before checking for a pulse. There was none.
His mind was filled with the memory of his brother, the guilt he had felt, the pain of that loss. He began steadily giving the cyclist CPR.
A doctor arrived but on seeing Mr Maihi's efforts, told him to keep going. Mr Maihi did, until an ambulance arrived.
The ambulance crew gave the stricken cyclist shock treatment, immediately restarting his heart.
The doctor told Mr Maihi his actions had saved the cyclist's life.
But Mr Maihi didn't want praise or recognition. He didn't ask the cyclist's name, nor did he give his own to the ambulance crew. He simply picked up the cones and went back to work.
"I didn't want to bloody go on about it. All I wanted to know was that the fella's heart was beating, in the ambulance. And it was, so that was good. I just did my best. You'd just do it for anyone."
When pushed further about the motivation behind his actions, Mr Maihi confessed: "It was the brother thing. It just keeps going through my head. It's been going through my head for about a year. So for me this has been just a bit of closure.
"It's just a message from him that I couldn't help him, but I could help this other fella."
Mr Maihi said Downer EDI Works deserved praise as they had given him annual CPR training for 15 years.
CPR - THE FACTS
* A person will collapse if their heart stops beating. This is called cardiac arrest.
* A person in cardiac arrest will be unconscious and not moving or breathing.
* CPR can save their lives by causing blood to flow to the heart and brain before an ambulance arrives.
TO PERFORM CPR
* Lie the person flat on their back.
* Push on the chest hard and fast 30 times, at a rate of about twice a second.
* Keep your arms straight and push in the middle of the chest. This is the most important part of CPR.
* Tilt the head back, pinch the nose and blow twice in the mouth.
* Continue to alternate 30 pushes on the chest with two blows in the mouth until an ambulance arrives.
Supplied by Dr Tony Smith, medical director for St John and intensive care medicine specialist at Auckland City Hospital.
