The second year Tamworth Hospital doctor recently decided to play to his strengths and opted to specialise in emergency medicine, while a perfect stranger might be lucky to be alive after collapsing, if possible, in the right place at the right time.

The Pirates rugby player had just walked back to the start line after pulling up with a calf injury during the final run leg.

“I was standing there and I could see a bloke holding his mate up and saying over and over ‘are you alright’ before he collapsed to the ground,” Mr Bath said.

“I got there at the same time as another training doctor from Queensland – he had stopped breathing completely and had no pulse so we started CPR.” 

In the meantime the two doctors had shouted out to get the St John’s ambulance, while organisers put a screen around the scene to keep the crowds out.

While St John’s didn’t have a defibrillator, they did have an oxygen pump, and the two doctors were joined on the scene by a third  doctor, an experienced anesthetist who overlooked proceedings, while locals ran to the nearby surf club to grab their defibrillator. 

“I was doing compressions and checking the pulse for almost 15 minutes before the defib got there. We then had to drag him out of the rain so the shock wasn’t too big and hooked up the pads.

“On the third shock he got a pulse back and became conscious again before the ambulance arrived and took him to intensive care.” 

While it was not the first time the young doctor has performed CPR, it was the first time outside of a hospital, and if he wants anyone to take anything away from the incident, it is the importance of first aid and “having a go”.

“It is quite unlikely he would have survived without a defib, but at the same time CPR keeps the blood flowing and getting oxygen to the brain while you are waiting for assistance to arrive,” Mr Bath said.

“The skill is so important and it is really simple to do, what we did could easily have been done by people that didn’t have medical training for the same result.

“Don’t over-complicate it in your head, and don’t worry about timing too much – you just need deep compressions and some air.

“Defibrillators are the same, you put the pads on with instructions and the machine tells you what to do from there. So just have a go.

“This guys was in his thirties and fit, so you never know when it might happen, but knowing what to do can make all the difference.”