'Amazing' hospital staff save colleague's life

When a 'Code Blue' call reverberated around Pindara Private Hospital recently, the location of the medical emergency came as a surprise.  

CEO Mark Page was in a meeting at the time.

"I remember hearing the Code Blue call to Ward 1A and immediately thinking, 'That's a staff area'," he said.

"All patient stories are powerful but when they're close like this, when that patient is one of us, it amplifies to me what I already know about how amazing our team here is."

An advanced life support team answered the call and rushed to the ward, where their colleague Ian Fabian had collapsed in his office.

"It was a Monday, I remember I'd just come back from a meeting and I was sitting at my desk, I was feeling OK," said Mr Fabian, the Gold Coast hospital's Workplace Health and Safety Coordinator.

"The next thing I know, I woke up being pushed along on a hospital trolley, there were cables coming out of me, and I recognised some of the ICU staff.

"I remember just thinking, 'This can't be right', and that's when they explained to me that I'd just had a stent put in and a significant blockage cleared after having a cardiac arrest at my desk."

Luckily for Mr Fabian, Clinical Nurse Joanne Campbell and Clinical Nurse Educator Jessica-Bree Farlow were in the corridor near his office when his heart stopped beating. 

They helped him to the ground and Ms Campbell worked on getting access to his chest for pads to shock him back to life, while Ms Farlow began to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Another staff member called the Code Blue and the advanced life support team arrived quickly with a defibrillator to restart his heart. 

"I was in the right place at the right time," Mr Fabian said.

"I'm eternally grateful to everyone involved on that day. I was one of the lucky ones."

After being shocked twice, and having six rounds of CPR, Mr Fabian was moved to the cardiac catheterisation lab where a cardiologist was waiting to treat him.

Mr Page said he was "so proud" of the Pindara Private Hospital staff's quick reaction to the emergency.

"It's not just about the advanced life support team and doctors and nurses – everyone who dived in to help, including moving furniture to clear space, they all played a part in saving Ian's life," he said.

"I'm so proud of the readiness of our people to react, whether it be to a staff member or to a patient."

Mr Fabian is now back at work at the Ramsay Health Care facility, and has become a strong advocate for the benefits of learning CPR and being aware of the warning signs for heart disease. 

"This just highlights the importance of knowing CPR. It could be needed at work, at home, in the community. If it weren't for the people around me knowing how to do it, I wouldn't be here now," he said.

"Also, if you have any warning signs, particularly if you have family history of heart disease, go and get a check-up.

"I have a healthy diet, I exercise regularly, but I do have a family history and there were some warning signs, like shortness of breath and light-headedness, that in hindsight I should have acted on."

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