It was September 22, a seemingly normal day at the Four Square Ngātea. But, Fiona Goldby wasn’t quite feeling herself. By early afternoon, she would be clinically dead.
“At lunchtime, I felt a little bit off. I had a bit of a headache, and then I came back to work,” she told Seven Sharp.
Goldby went into cardiac arrest and collapsed behind the counter while serving a customer.
Fortunately, workmate and Four Square Ngātea owner Richie Saunders knew what he was doing and sprung into action.
Golby's colleague Jake Coleman started chest compressions when they realised she wasn’t breathing. Someone else called 111.
Saunders then grabbed the defibrillator at the store, an AED (automated external defibrillator).
Looking back on the incident, he said everything was “a bit of a blur” because it all happened so quickly.
He said he was thankful the Hauraki Plains Ward Committee had donated the AED three years ago.
“We’re thankful that was the first time we’ve ever had to use it. We’re just thankful for the training that they gave us … everything just kicked into gear, luckily.”
Goldby said she doesn’t remember much of what happened that day, either. She only found out about what had happened a day and a half later.
“I think I won the Lotto.”
She urged others to get an AED machine or get access to one, and to brush up on their first aid skills.
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