Victoria officials baffled over record-high cardiac arrests

Victorian officials are struggling to determine the cause of a spike in cardiac arrests which is affecting approximately 20 Victorians per day, Australia’s Channel 7 News reported.

Last year paramedics responded to over 7,000 cardiac arrests, a 6% increase from the year before. Now officials have launched a public awareness campaign which includes GoodSAM, a mobile app which alerts would-be good Samaritans if someone is experiencing cardiac arrest.

St. John Ambulance Victoria has been petitioning the government to fund more defibrillators to help stem fatalities. Since about 80% of cardiac arrests happen in the home, St. John Ambulance Victoria has been promoting a program called “Defib in Your Street.” The initiative aims to install an automated external defibrillator (AED) within 400 meters (one-quarter mile) of every home and to train local community members in using the devices.‍

But the problem is not limited to Victoria. 

Victoria’s neighboring state of South Australia passed a bill in November 2022 to require AEDs in buildings “used for commercial purposes.” These include all public buildings, schools, retirement villages, residential living care facilities, theaters, casinos, parks, police stations, and other establishments. Trains, trams, public buses and other “prescribed vehicles” are also enjoined to install defibrillators. 

Woolworths, Australia’s national supermarket chain, also announced an initiative to install 500 defibrillators in branches across the country. 

"The numbers are troubling," said Woolworths Managing Director Claire Peters. "As a business with a presence in more than a thousand communities across the country, we want to do our bit to help save lives." 

Last year Australia’s Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said no one can explain why there was a sudden surge in emergency code-one calls which, according to state records, had jumped 40%.   

“But it is really interesting,” D’Ath told reporters in April 2022. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone can explain why we saw a 40% jump in code-ones. And I’ve seen that as I’ve traveled around the state sometimes. I walk into an ambulance service and they’ll say, ‘We had a 30% increase in code-ones yesterday. Can’t tell you why. We just had a lot of heart attacks and chest pains and trouble, you know, breathing and respiratory issues.’ Sometimes you can’t explain why those things happen.” 

The rise in cardiac arrests is part of a larger increase in excess deaths currently mystifying officials.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were 30,000 all-cause excess deaths in 2022, a 15% increase over baseline and the highest death rate in Australia since World War II, according to estimates.

But the Health Department has so far been unable to adequately explain the rising mortality, offering such explanations as a “delay” in deaths and “undiagnosed COVID-19 deaths”.