FEBRUARY 29 2020 LISTENER 17
pointed out the lack of a national database
of AED locations, and that the shortage
of defibrillators in readily accessible places
could mean the difference between life and
death for hundreds of people.
After the story, web designers Abletech
approached him to help establish the site,
and he is now adding about 10 new loca-
tions a day. Countdown supermarkets, Z
Energy and real-estate agency Barfoot &
Thompson have defibrillators in all their
branches and Jenkin says in the main city
centres people are usually only about 100m
from a device at any time.
About five people a day suffer cardiac
arrests in the community. More than two-
thirds of the patients are men and more
than half are 65-plus. In 2017-18, 74%
received CPR from bystanders. That year,
St John says, about 5% of patients were
defibrillated before the ambulance arrived,
the figure increasing to 11% if the person
was in a public place. The ambulance took
a median time of six minutes to arrive in
urban communities, but nine minutes
in rural and remote areas. About 70% of
arrests happened at home.
Although 28% of people who
had an arrest made it to hospi-
tal that year, only 13% survived
more than a month – a similar
figure to that of Western Australia
and Victoria (11%) and London
(10%) – showing just how lucky
Page and May were to have defi-
brillators nearby. Defibrillators are
easy to use, says Jenkin. “If you
can use a cell phone you can use
a defibrillator.” Survival rates vary
internationally from less than 6% to 50%.
The only “treatment” for cardiac arrest is
defibrillation but, when it comes to coro-
nary artery disease and heart attacks, what
to do and when to do it is still the subject
of international debate.BYPASSING THE BYPASS
In November, researchers released the find-
ings of an international study showing
that for thousands of patients with stable
ischaemic heart disease (a lack of blood
flow and oxygen to the heart muscle), inva-
sive treatments such as bypass operations
or stents won’t help them live longer or
avoid heart attacks than if they are on the
recommended combination of medicines.
Cardiologists say the results of the Inter-
national Study of Comparative Health
Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive
Approaches (Ischemia), which had more
than 5000 participants, will spark renewed
controversy about the potential for a more
conservative approach to the treatment
of angina brought on by exertion. Stent-
ing or a bypass are still the first choices of
treatment for people with unstable angina –
those whose pain comes on at rest – or whoare admitted to hospital with a heart attack.
When increasing fatigue and a few bouts
of chest pain drove Vic Beksinski, 53, to
seek medical help in 2018, he feared he
was about to follow his father into an early
grave. He admits he’d been letting himself
go as a result of personal and work stresses.
He’d packed on nearly 15kg in two years
and was smoking 20 cigarettes a day as his
blood pressure and cholesterol climbed. So,
when he found himself, like thousands of
others, facing an angioplasty and the inser-
tion of a stent to open a coronary artery
that was 70% occluded, it was the chance
to reboot his health and his life.
To Beksinski, a former circus trapeze
artist who’s now a special-effects techni-
cian in the film industry, the idea that he
might have done just as well on medicines
without the need for an invasive procedure
is of only academic interest now. He says
the angioplasty was the “huge wake-up
call” he needed and he believes the ben-
efits are both physical and mental. He’s
eating healthily, working out, has lost
weight and stopped smoking. His energyIn the main city centres
people are usually only
about 100m from a
defibrillator at any time.
continued on page 21Success story: left,
paramedic and
resuscitation tutor
Gareth Jenkin in a
2010 Listener story
about defibrillators;
right, Jenkin
demonstrating CPR.Killer condition
■ Despite a 75% reduction in
deaths since the late 1960s,
heart disease is still the
country’s biggest single killer,
claiming 6300 lives a year.■ More than 180,000 New
Zealanders live with heart
disease, but it is a particular
burden for Māori and Pacific
peoples, in whom it is a dis-
ease of middle age, with 37%
of Māori and 39% of Pacific
deaths from cardiovascular
disease happening before
the age of 65, compared with
one in 10 for non-Māori and
non-Pacific.