The Star: August 05, 2021

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday August 5 2021 The Star
NEWS 9
Life or death mission to fetch defibrillator
• By Susan Sandys
MICHAEL OAKLEY was
perhaps given the most
important instruction of his
life recently, when he was told
to go and fetch a community
defibrillator.
Melissa Scarlett gave him the
directive, as she was performing
cardiopulmonary resuscitation
on her father Tony Scarlett at the
family’s Hororata farm.
“It was: ‘S**t, I think I know
where the defibrillator is,’ but I’m
not sure,” Oakley said.
That was his thought as he
ran and jumped into his car and
drove towards the township.
He ultimately succeeded in
the challenge, resulting in the
survival of 69-year-old Tony,
who had been working on the
family farm when he had a
cardiac arrest and collapsed.
Oakley is now urging anyone
who does not know where their
local community’s defibrillator is
located, to find out.
The life or death story began
1.48pm on July 20. That was
the time that Oakley got a call
from a friend, who had just been
talking to Tony on the phone.
The friend told him Tony was
driving a tractor and not feeling
good, and asked him to go and
check on him. The friend also
phoned emergency services,
however, was not able to give
LIFESAVER: Michael Oakley (left) retrieved the Hororata community defibrillator from the
township’s garage, just in time to revive Tony Scarlett, pictured with wife Jean.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
them the exact address.
Oakley drove about 4km
to his neighbour’s farm. He
headed to a rear paddock after
spotting a tractor there, and
came upon Melissa, who was
with her 11-year-old son Leithan,
undertaking CPR on her father
in a dairy lane. He parked
as close as he could and ran
towards the scene, but only got
within about 20m before Melissa
gave him the instruction to go
and get the defibrillator.
Oakley said as he drove away,
he thought the defibrillator
would either be at the town
garage, school or fire station. He
phoned his wife, Kate, to ask her
to phone someone else to find
out. About three minutes after
leaving the farm, he was pulling
up at the garage, GAS Hororata,
when Kate phoned back to say it
was there.
Garage manager Margaret
Cross threw him the key, he got
the defibrillator and raced back
to the farm. He arrived back at
the scene to see one of the farm’s
workers, Anthony Sayer, who
is also a Hororata firefighter,
having taken over CPR.
Oakley and Melissa applied
the defibrillator pads to Tony,
and followed the machine’s audio
instructions, delivering shocks.
“It was two, maybe three goes
before we got his heart to start
again, he started to breathe,”
Oakley said.
“He’s a lucky man.”
Five to six minutes after
Oakley arrived at the scene with
the defibrillator, the Hororata
Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived.
About 10 minutes later, St John
ambulance services arrived,
followed by the rescue
helicopter.
Oakley urged people to
find out where their local
defibrillators were, or even
download the AED Locations
app which has this information.
Tony is making a good
recovery at home after being
discharged from hospital on
Friday.
He and wife Jean also credit
the defibrillator with saving his
life.
Tony said the last thing he
remembered before waking
up in hospital a few days after
he collapsed on the farm, was
talking to his wife Jean on
the phone to tell her he did not
feel well. He had phoned Jean
after getting out of the tractor
where he had just made the call
to the friend who alerted Oakley.
• Turn to page 10
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