Boy, 2, crushed by barbecue that fell on him is saved with help of new app
An off-duty paramedic saved a toddler’s life with the help of a new app when a barbecue toppled onto him at his home in Adelaide.
Two-year-old Grayson Garrad was going blue when mum Ashleigh found him pinned underneath the heavy grill out in their back garden.
He had already lost consciousness due to the weight of the machine compressing his airway.
Ashleigh frantically called for an ambulance, but her son’s chances of survival were vanishing by the second.
Not too far away, Robert Davis was standing in line at an ice cream van when his phone pinged in his pocket.
It was an alert from the GoodSAM app telling him someone in the area needed urgent resuscitation.
Speaking to 7 News, Ashleigh described what happened next: ‘This man in his regular clothes came, and I didn’t know who he was or where he came from.’
Mr Davis wasted no time getting to work on the youngster, telling the broadcaster: ‘The toddler just felt lifeless, and I was trying to give some effective CPR.’
Ashleigh added: ‘I thought he was going to be gone. We couldn’t thank him enough for what he’s done.’
The GoodSAM app allows people with training in CPR to sign up as volunteers to respond to life-threatening emergency situations.
When an emergency call comes through and is classified as such an incident, the details are automatically sent out through the app to alert the nearest approved volunteer responder.
The responder is also sent the location of the nearest defibrillator.
Co-founder Professor Mark Wilson has said of the app: ‘If a patient has a cardiac arrest or a traumatic head injury, it is the first few minutes after the incident that determine the outcome – life, death, or long-term brain injury.
‘There are first aid trained people all around us but usually the first they know of a neighbour having a cardiac arrest is an ambulance appearing in their street.
‘If they had known and started CPR a few minutes before the ambulance arrived, chances of survival can rise significantly.
‘GoodSAM now makes this possible, connecting those with the skills to the public in their minute of need.’
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