00:01Living a long way from town can be the difference between life and death in an emergency.
00:07These community volunteers are determined to change that.
00:11Think about it as first aid but on steroids.
00:14Volunteers are given an ambulance vehicle and nine months worth of advanced first aid training.
00:20Kathleen Sneddon is a support analyst by day, but if she gets the call, she can be on the scene
00:25in minutes.
00:26The Rock, around half an hour from Wagga, is the latest town to have a response team hit the streets.
00:32I went to a job on Friday and we were there within two minutes of the call
00:37and we were able to provide, I guess, the control on the situation to be able to stabilise the patient.
00:44We've had a cardiac arrest, we've had motor vehicle accidents.
00:48You'd be lucky to get an ambulance there within 20 minutes.
00:51It's one of eight operating across regional New South Wales.
00:54In an ideal world, we would have an ambulance on every corner, but that's not achievable.
00:59This small fishing village on the mid-north coast got its own team in December.
01:04Darren Burke is a former army medic and says Harrington's volunteers have already responded to more than 60 call-outs.
01:11We do get cut off from the community a bit.
01:13If we can provide that initial care until the professional paramedics arrive, that's what it's all about.
01:19While costs are covered, volunteers aren't paid, but the service can act as a stepping stone to a full-time
01:24career change.
01:26I've actually enrolled in paramedicine, so I'm going to uni this year and doing the whole course so I can
01:32be a paramedic.
01:33We hold up that torch, we take it with us and we go out there and respond just as they
01:38would.
01:39Responding first and saving lives.
01:41First and saving lives
01:41First and saving lives
01:42First and saving lives
01:43You're free
01:44Put into Estones
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