Yesterday (16 October), local pastor Rajko Celic reunited with the people who saved his life.
On an April morning earlier this year, Mr Celic was playing a game of basketball with a friend at Mount Warren Sports and Fitness Centre.
Mr Celic’s friend, standing at the three-point line on the court, is his last memory before waking up in the Princess Alexandra Hospital some hours later.
Mr Celic, who is 44 years old, had suffered a heart attack, which led to a cardiac arrest.
“I always thought they were one and the same, but they’re different from one another,” Mr Celic said.
“You can have a heart attack and still be breathing, but a cardiac arrest is when your heart stops.”
Two bystanders, Sarah and Paul, did cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and administered two shocks from the sports centre’s Automated External Defibrillator (AED), while waiting for paramedics to arrive.
Paramedic Austin Choy, who responded to the scene, said quick thinking by Sarah and Paul and early access to an AED saved Mr Celic’s life.
“The importance of timely bystander intervention can save lives,” Mr Choy said.
“We want you to know when to call triple 0 and follow those instructions from our call takers, where your closest AED is, to follow the instructions on that, and be confident to do CPR.
“The reason this case worked out so well was from early bystander intervention and early defibrillation with an AED.”
Almost six months on from his brush with death, Mr Celic said he’s grateful to be alive.
“I actually thought that reuniting with everyone was going to be more emotional, but actually, I just felt joy, happiness, gratefullness, and thankfulness,” he said.
“I learned that in order for one person to keep on ticking like myself, it wasn’t just one or two people, it was a whole team of people who worked on me to keep me alive.”
Now, Mr Celic has turned his focus to advocating for pastors to undertake CPR training and for churches to have an AED.
The south Queensland branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which Mr Celic works for, held a training session at their most recent conference, which delivered CPR training to about 25 pastors in the greater Brisbane area.
“I’ve been trained in CPR once before, but on that day I was self-reflective when I was listening to the statistics as to how many people survived [a cardiac episode],” Mr Celic said.
Mr Celic said he was feeling well and is now back on the basketball court, making an effort to play the game weekly.
“I waited four months and then I went back to the same court where this happened,” he said. “I think it was good to face the fear on the same court, so I’m doing well.”
Image: Steven Hoare.
