Quick decision to start CPR saves best friend

March 25, 2025 | in News

Ian Ellem told his long-time friend Ian Blacket he would meet him back at the car as they each headed into different shops while running errands in Kangaroo Flat.

But when Mr Ellem returned, he found Mr Blacket collapsed in the carpark.

“He’d cracked his head and was bleeding, but worse, he was grey,” Mr Ellem said.

A man stands between two paramedics, who have their arms around him. They smile for the camera in front of an ambulance.

Ian met two of the paramedics who helped save his life. L-R: AV Acting Senior Team Manager Ben Miller, Ian Blacket and paramedic Steph Morley, who was off-duty on the day of the cardiac arrest.

“I started doing CPR and there was another lady nearby who called Triple Zero (000).

“I’d never done CPR before and I didn’t really know what to do, but I just knew it wasn’t time for him to go anywhere.”

Mr Blacket had experienced a cardiac arrest and no one knew for sure how long he’d been on the ground.

Every minute counts in a cardiac arrest – for every minute that cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, is delayed, the chances of survival decrease by 10 per cent.

Ambulances soon arrived, as well as an off-duty paramedic who happened to pass by.

One shock was given with a defibrillator and Ambulance Victoria (AV) paramedics continued CPR and provided ventilation to Mr Blacket.

Soon, they achieved a return of spontaneous circulation but it didn’t mean Mr Blacket was in the clear, and Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedics intubated him, so they could manage his airway as he was rushed to hospital.

The cardiac arrest happened in November and now a few months later, Mr Blacket is alive and well – even saying he feels in better health.

“I used to be a heavy smoker and I was often having bad coughing fits,” Mr Blacket said.

“Since it happened, I haven’t touched a cigarette and I’m not having those coughing fits anymore.

“It was always in the back of my mind that I had to give smoking up but that’s as far as it went, until this happened and now it’s been easy to say to myself ‘no more’.”

Mr Blacket had only recently moved to Dunolly from interstate when the cardiac arrest occurred.

He said he is incredibly thankful to his friend Mr Ellem and the paramedics for saving his life.

“Ian finding me when he did and starting CPR – if that didn’t happen and I’d laid there a few more minutes, it quite possibly would have been a different story,” Mr Blacket said.

“Ian is the brother I never had and I can’t thank him enough.

“And a huge thank you to the paramedics, I owe them my life.

“Without their input I’d be a bit of bloody compost!

“You couldn’t script anything happening how it did that day, even the off-duty paramedic coming by and helping.

“It all fell into place to my advantage that day.”