By Neville Idour

Golf clubs must value life highly

Late last year I successfully completed a course in the health and wellbeing sector.

However to get my full qualification certification I had to complete a first aid course. With that certificate achieved I would earn my full ticket.

Having never done one before, which I now feel was a bit lax on my part, I found the experience profoundly eye opening.

This was not just from the general knowledge and techniques to use in an emergency that I learned, but probably most importantly I learned the immense importance of a defibrillator’s life saving value, particularly in the event of a cardiac arrest.

Over the months this has gnawed away at me so I thought I would see how our golf clubs are doing in New Zealand.

First though let us consider some facts. Simply put an defibrillator can be the difference in minutes between life and death. The Heart Foundation have many stories to tell.

Earlier this year a woman suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in a retail store while shopping. Staff were quick to respond and a defibrillator was deployed. The woman recovered.

There was another sudden incident on a golf course when a member collapsed during a round. A staff member grabbed the defibrillator while the greenkeeper started with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). One shock and the person was breathing again. Latest update is the person recovered.

A report from the United Kingdom earlier in the year was very sobering. The Resuscitation Council said that fewer than two percent of people who collapse with a cardiac arrest outside hospital receive treatment with an defibrillator before an ambulance arrives.

Only 40 percent receive CPR from a bystander either because people do not know what to do or fear they will cause harm. Professor John Somauroo from the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital pointed to a study published last year. It found people had a 93 percent chance of survival without brain damage if a defibrillator was used compared to a mere nine percent if they were resuscitated without one.

So the big question is what would you or I do if a customer, colleague, teammate or golf partner had a cardiac arrest? Would there be an defibrillator close enough to be of help?

So back to our golf clubs and how we are doing.

I checked out 94 golf clubs, including most of our top end and resort courses plus many city courses and a good countrywide smattering of smaller town and country courses. The results were both heartening and enlightening but at times disappointing.

I probably made 70 phone calls. Of the 94 clubs 28 did not have one. These were spread across the spectrum, surprisingly. Some unmanned country courses you would not expect to have one, yet there were some that did. Most clubs with defibrillators have never had to use them, thankfully.

It is worth sharing some of the positive results from my phone calls. Harewood, in Christchurch, has one in the clubhouse that was used successfully to save an older man who collapsed in the car park. Another Christchurch club, Clearwater, has one in the main building and two on course. Jessica Reid, the professional, at Russley in Christchurch, said: “We have one in the foyer and one in the middle of the course. We want to minimise risk and take care of our members.”

Templeton, in Christchurch, has used it’s defibrillator once and it saved a life. On the other hand Taieri and Otago have both used theirs once but in each case the person died probably because they were too critical. Staying in Otago, Arrowtown had used it’s defibrillator twice in the last 12 months with good results. Queenstown Golf Club acquired it’s defibrillator in October, 2019, when the Australasian Fire Brigade Tour played an event there and donated one as a thank you to the club.

Christchurch Golf Club (Shirley) have two. Golf operations Manager Rick Vincent said: “We have one in the pro shop and one in the clubhouse. One for nine years, the other for five years. We have several doctors in our membership and they thought it would be good to have that security so they donated them. They have each been used once.”

It was admirable to find smaller clubs like Rangatira in Manawatu and Mataura in Southland each had a defibrillator.

What can we learn from all of this?

Let us go back to the UK situation. Four million people visit golf clubs each year but only one third of the 2800 courses have a defibrillator. So there is a joint campaign there called saving golfers lives, which includes an insurance company calling on every golf course to have a minimum of two defibrillators.

So the question is what price is a life worth? Is it $2000, the approximate cost of one defibrillator or is it $4000 the cost of two?

Perhaps the time has come for those clubs without one to consider working the cost into their budget. We may never have to use it, hopefully, but if it did save a life the relief and satisfaction would transcend any words or dollars spent.

It is also vital that all golf course staff know if they have a defibrillator, where it is and how to use it.

Sadly a small number who answered their phone did not know one or more of those things.

Does New Zealand Golf have a policy? It's chief executive Dean Murphy said: "We have no specific formal policy. However, when we are in contact with individual clubs we certainly recommend they have one or more on site and easily accessible."

I wonder if a co-ordinated nationwide promotion like ``she loves golf'' called "save a life" might get the message through to all clubs.

For all of us individually, if we have a mobile phone, we can do our bit by downloading the outstanding defibrillator locations application so that wherever we are we can quickly find exactly where they are located.

The great thing about a defibrillator is no one needs to feel scared to use one. They are fully automated and issue clear instructions for each step in the process. You can’t do any harm but you might save a life.