Home topics news News Small Business Work Health | Safety News Sudden cardiac arrest in the workplace – what would you do? James Harkness June 15, 2016 Imagine a Monday morning like any other… You walk into the office and make yourself a cup a coffee whilst catching up with your team about the weekend. All of a sudden, you hear the violent sound of a cup smashing and see one of your employees fall to the ground – unconscious, not breathing, with no pulse. What would you do? If the answer is “I don’t know,” the tragic reality is that without immediate CPR and a shock from a defibrillator (or ‘defib’), that person – your employee – would likely die within minutes. As an employer, you’re responsible for the health and safety of your employees, but in order to be fully prepared you must first understand the number one risk facing Australia today – sudden cardiac arrest. What is sudden cardiac arrest? Isn’t it the same as a heart attack? Sudden cardiac arrest is the largest cause of death in Australia, and is far more lethal and unpredictable than a heart attack. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart stops and thus causes a section of the heart muscle to begin to die; whereas a cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops beating as a whole. In other words, the heart attack victim is awake and the heart is beating. In contrast, the