48-year-old Greg Page, the Yellow Wiggle suddenly collapsed as walking off stage at the Bushfire Relief Concert.

“Cast and crew members of The Wiggles administered CPR, while an off-duty nurse used a defibrillator three times to save the life of former band member Greg Page when he suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday night.”

Sydney Morning Herald

Cardiac arrest is the term given to the sudden loss of heart function. The person will collapse and stop breathing normally. The heart is no longer pumping blood around to the vital organs of the body.

Cardiac arrest is recognised if the person is:

1. Unconscious
2. Unresponsive
3. Has absent or abnormal breathing

How Did The Yellow Wiggle Survive? A summarised breakdown of the chain of survival that saved Greg Page. 

• Recognition: 
  • 48-year-old Greg Page, the Yellow Wiggle suddenly collapsed as walking off stage at the Bushfire Relief Concert.
  • The Wiggles team recognised that he was suddenly unresponsive and not breathing, pulled the curtain for privacy from the audience and called for an ambulance. 

• Call 000:
  • Emergency services were contacted

• Early CPR:
  • CPR was started without delay and continued by the Wiggles team members along with Grace Jones (also referred to as Amazing Grace) an off duty nurse. 
  • CPR remained continuous until advised to stop (unless defibrillator or ambulance advises to stop, keep going.)

• Early AED: 
  • Whilst Grace was performing CPR, someone was aware there was a defibrillator at the RSL club, grabbed the defibrillator and handed it to Grace.
  • Thankfully that person had been aware and responsive to know to grab it fast.

• Ambulance:
  • The Wiggles team and Grace continued to do CPR and follow the AED Defibrillator instructions.
  • It is reported that the ambulance arrived approximately 20 minutes later.
  • When the ambulance paramedics arrived, Greg’s heart was beating.

• Hospital:
  • Upon arriving to the scene paramedics took over from the Wiggles team and Grace and Greg taken to hospital for specialised care.

The chain of survival relies on the community and bystanders to recognise a cardiac arrest, call Triple Zero – 000 (Ambulance), commence CPR and use an AED (if available).

Ambulance Commissioner Calls For More Defibrillators and Bystander Action

NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dr Dominic Morgan urges people to understand that Defibrillators are life saving medical equipment and are “absolutely not” just for trained people to use. Dr Morgan said the following below:

• “They are there for anyone to use, they are totally safe, they will not defibrillate the patient unless the machine recognises it,”
• “You just have to have a go, and you may just save a life as we saw when Grace got up and had a go.”

Dr. Morgan urges more venues to purchase an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and can be purchased for a very low cost considering they are medical devices that save lives.

“So what that means in practice is if we’re 10 minutes away there’s a very, very low likelihood of people surviving.”

Thankfully that person had been aware and responsive to know to grab it fast. Those are the critical actions that have saved Greg’s life – as for every minute without a defibrillator the chance of survival decreases by approximately 10 per cent. If they were to wait for an ambulance to arrive at the reported time about 20 minutes later Greg Page, The Yellow Wiggle would have zero to minimal chances of survival.

What Do You Do From Here?

Greg Page the Yellow Wiggle survived a sudden cardiac arrest simply because of the people around him and because there was a defibrillator on site.

Our team at Response For Life are all about being equipped to deal with sudden cardiac arrest. From equipment to confidence.

Here is a FREE LINK (No personal details required to access) where you can significantly improve your knowledge and confidence within 5 – 10 minutes. https://responseforlife.org.au/simple-workplace-guide-to-sudden-cardiac-arrest-in-minutes It’s simple, we want to have more Cardiac Arrest Survivors in Australia.

If you don’t have an AED Defibrillator, you haven’t checked your existing unit in a while or if you need training, we want to hear from you.

For more information on Defibrillators, First Aid Kits and Training call us now on 0421752152, email us on info@responseforlife.org.au or simply put your details below and we will be in contact ASAP.