A man died at Takapuna Beach on Monday after he was spotted unresponsive in the water. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
A woman who rushed to help an unconscious man, who later died at an Auckland beach, says precious time was lost after St John gave her the wrong code to access the on-site defibrillator.
Hato Hone St John apologised for the distress this caused and said it is looking to make changes to its system and processes.
Police said they were advised a man was seen unresponsive in the water on Monday and had been pulled on to Takapuna Beach.
Despite the best efforts of bystanders, officers and other emergency services at the scene, the man could not be saved.
A woman who was part of the rescue effort told the Herald she was given an incorrect access code to open the defibrillator lock box, which was not a St John-owned AED.
“Seconds do matter. I felt anguish that I couldn’t access the defibrillator,” she said.
Hato Hone St John Integrated Operations Centre manager for primary triage and dispatch, John-Michael Swannix, said St John believes public AEDs should be easy to access in a medical emergency.
He said St John prefers they are not locked, similar to fire extinguishers.
“In this situation, the AED was in a locked box and the 111 caller was given a generic code, but this particular AED, which is not one of our own, has its own unique code that was unfortunately not found in our system during the call,” Swannix said.
“We apologise for the distress this may have caused. We are making changes to our system and process following this incident to minimise the risk of it happening again when an AED is locked.”
Swannix said the organisation is proud of its ambulance staff, who responded rapidly to the emergency and arrived on the scene around the time the caller was asking for the code.
The woman said she had just got into her car to leave the beach at midday when she saw a kite surfer’s foiler smash into the shallow water.
“There was a bit of a commotion. I could see a few people get up and go running towards the shallows,” she said.
The woman said she had spotted the defibrillator earlier in the day and decided to rush and grab it, just in case it was needed.
“I went as fast as I could to get it. When I got there, it said dial 111 for the access code, which I did.”
She said once she was put through to St John, she was allegedly told the organisation didn’t have a code for the specific defibrillator in question.
“I thought you’re s***ting me. This is exactly the scenario these can help in, they’re not for decoration,” she said.
“Time was ticking. It felt like a long time, because there were no emergency services on the scene yet.”
She said from where the defibrillator was she could see people working on the man, just metres away.
She was then told she could be given the “skeleton code” to try but there was no guarantee it would work.
“I was really calm and breathed deeply to make sure that I was accurate with punching the PIN code correctly, even with urgency.”
Unfortunately, it was the incorrect code.
She was told that’s all she could do, the ambulance was on the way, and then the call was disconnected.
“I had to give up,” she said.
“When you look at the statistics of the difference that a defib can make in a short space of time, depending on the situation of the person, it could have made a difference, and it should have been accessible,” she said.
To improve the situation, the woman said she believed the operator could have put her on hold and called the company that owned the AED for the code and kept her on the line.
“My fear is that I could have potentially got a defibrillator on the scene before emergency services arrived, and maybe that would have made a difference, and I will never know,” the woman said.
The woman said defibrillators were “incredible things” that the public should be more aware of, and emphasised that this incident isn’t about assigning blame, but about ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
“My hope is that the family know everyone did everything they could to help, that they have the whole community’s condolences.”
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