Hato Hone St John is on a mission to empower 10,000 people with the 3 Steps for Life as part of its “Shocktober” and Restart a Heart Day campaigns.

Cardiac arrest remains one of the leading causes of death in Aotearoa New Zealand with more than 2,000 people a year treated for cardiac arrest. 

Of those, only 25 percent survive hospital arrival and 11 per cent leave hospital alive. 

St John head of community education Jacci Tatnell said while the statistics are alarming, the good news is survival rates can double with a little help from a friend.

“Bystander CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] can mean the difference between life or death, which is why we are committed to training as many people as possible in Ngā Tohu Whakaora e Toru – the 3 Steps for Life programme.”

Jacci explained the three steps are ‘CALL, PUSH, SHOCK’: Call 111, push is to start CPR, and shock is to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

“Our goal is to deliver it to 10,000 people by leveraging on ‘Restart a Heart’ day on Sunday October 16 and focusing the whole month of October on CPR and AED training - which is also why we've coined it 'Shocktober'.”

To help deliver on that goal, St John will be holding free public training events across the motu.

The closest event to Central will be held at Queenstown Airport on Monday October 17.

“We’re super excited because this is the first time in two years that we have been able to mark Restart a Heart Day with public training events due to the pandemic,” Jacci said.

She said the urgency to learn CPR and how to use an AED was more important than ever, given that the latest Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report showed cardiac survival rates fell during the pandemic.

“The more people we can empower with the 3 Steps for Life, which is a free programme, the more lives are likely to be saved.”

St John encourages everyone that learns the 3 Steps for Life to become a GoodSAM responder, which means they will be alerted when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest so they can respond before emergency services arrive – giving that person the best chance of survival, Jacci said.

New Zealand has more than 6,000 people registered as GoodSAM responders, and AED numbers in the community are growing, with more than 5,500 registered throughout the country. 

People are encouraged to register for the GoodSAM app if they are trained in first aid and CPR. Anyone can download the free St John mobile CPR app for instructions on how to do CPR, and learn how to locate the nearest public AED at aedlocations.co.nz or download the AED locations app.

People can also participate in the #9for9 challenge on social media to raise awareness about the seriousness of cardiac arrest and remember the nine out of 10 people who don’t survive.