Cardiac Arrests ‘Highest Ever Recorded’ in Australian State of Victoria

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Cardiac arrests in the Australian state of Victoria are at their highest levels on record.

More Victorians than ever before suffered a heart attack in 2022, with Ambulance Victoria treating 7,361 patients.

Paramedic Caitlin Bayle said these numbers are “really concerning” during an interview with 7 News.

“Last year in Victoria the cardiac arrest rates increased by 6 percent,” Ms. Bayle said on television.

“And in our state alone each day about 20 people have a cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, only about two of those survive.”

Leading Cause of Death in Australia

The figures come after the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found heart disease to be the number one cause of death in Australia last year.

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The figures also reveal there were nearly “20,000 more deaths” in Australia in 2022 compared to 2021.

ABS head of mortality statistics, Lauren Moran, highlighted heart disease was the leading cause of death last year.

More than 18,500, or one in 10 deaths in Australia, were due to heart disease with 60 percent being men.

“The top five causes of death in 2022 were ischaemic heart disease, dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease), COVID-19, cerebrovascular diseases (strokes), and lung cancer, which when combined, accounted for more than a third of all deaths,” the ABS said.

COVID-19 was also listed as the third top cause of death during the year, with 9,859 impacted, according to the ABS.

Former Liberal Party Minister Eric Abetz has called for an improvement in how COVID-19 deaths are reported.

“How about a comprehensive study advising the people of Australia on how many people died with COVID-19 as opposed to from COVID-19? A material and qualitative difference would have allayed a lot of community fear,” he said in an opinion piece for The Epoch Times.

“Were there any funding incentives to report deaths from COVID-19 as there were in the United States?”

Meanwhile, Australia registered 190,939 deaths over the course of 2022.

Among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, heart disease was the number one cause of death. This was followed by diabetes, chronic lung diseases, lung cancer, and suicide.

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‘Shocktober’ Campaign

Ambulance Victoria is running a “Shocktober” campaign in October to push more people to learn CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator.

The ambulance service highlighted how only one in 10 people who suffered cardiac arrest was likely to survive.

Paramedic Bethany Birkett along with Ms. Bayle recently attended the scene of an “eight-year-old” experiencing cardiac arrest.

Fortunately, the mother of this young child had already started performing CPR before paramedics arrived.

“When I found her, she seemed to be having some sort of seizure, which then turned into cardiac arrest where there was no heartbeat and no response, no breathing,” the mother of the child said on 10 News.

“I never thought I would have to use any of that training, especially on my eight-year-old daughter.”

Ambulance Victoria highlighted this as an example of why learning CPR could be a lifesaver.

On Oct.16, Restart A Heart Day will take place as part of the Shocktober campaign.