Teamwork saved a young life

– Tania Martin
A COCKATOO man is living proof of the importance of learning cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after he was presented with a hero award for helping a young boy.
Danny Saunders was one of 12 ordinary Victorians recognised last week by the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) for stopping to help people in times of medical emergency.
Mr Saunders was taking a lunchtime walk on Wednesday, 9 March when he came across secondary school teacher Jillian Duffell with one of her students, 14-year-old Joel Paull, who had gone into cardiac arrest.
“I saw what was happening and realised Joel wasn’t breathing and rang for an ambulance,” he said.
Mr Saunders then started performing CPR on Joel, with the help of Ms Duffell.
“I did the compressions while Jillian did the breathing,” he said.
The two continued to perform CPR on Joel for 10 minutes until the ambulance arrived.
Mr Saunders said when the ambulance arrived the paramedics continued with CPR.
He said it was later revealed that Joel had a heart condition, and that he was lucky to be alive.
Mr Saunders said he caught up with Joel a couple of days after the incident and again in May with his mum and dad to see how he was doing.
“Joel is fine, which is amazing as I was told his odds of pulling through something like that was 100-1,” he said. Mr Saunders said he and Jillian worked on Joel for 10 minutes, the paramedics performed CPR for another 15 minutes and then he was shocked seven times in the hospital.