'When I was 19, my nan died in my arms of a cardiac arrest. 20 years later, I had one, too.'

I was 39 years old when I had a sudden cardiac arrest.

But this wasn’t the first time my family was impacted by the condition – which is the world’s biggest cause of premature death.

I had just turned 19 when my grandmother, Ita Starkey – Nanna, as I called her – died in my arms, in the restroom of a country railway station.

My grandmother had started to feel unwell and confused as we’d arrived at the station, so I took her into the bathroom. It was there she passed out on top of me. 

I immediately panicked and froze, before yelling for help.

Help did come, but it was too late. The paramedics were unable to revive her.

Watch: How to perform emergency CPR. Post continues after video.

I felt a lot of guilt after Nanna passed. I felt I had let her down, as well as my mother, aunt and uncle. I felt I’d let myself down, too, by not remaining calm. Because I hadn’t taken action and I hadn’t performed CPR.

Many years on, I don’t feel as guilty anymore, as I know I didn’t have the reinforced training, the confidence and the tools to help my Nanna. I had learned CPR at school but was not empowered to believe that CPR and defibrillation in the moments following a cardiac arrest could actually make a difference in survival rates.

I was 39 when I experienced my own sudden cardiac arrest. But I was lucky.

The first stroke of luck was that my partner, Donovan, was right next to me when it happened. He was able to overcome the panic of seeing me struggling to breathe and call triple-0 for help.

The second stroke of luck was that there was already an ambulance just around the corner, and another two nearby. 

They all responded. But it took a team of paramedics more than 30 minutes to revive me, each of them taking turns performing CPR to get a shockable rhythm.

If those ambulances hadn’t been so close, the outcome could have certainly been different. It’s very difficult to do CPR, especially on your own, and there is very little opportunity to stop and look for an automated external defibrillator (or AED, as they're known) if there isn’t one close by.

After arriving at the hospital, I was in a coma for two weeks and during that time, the ICU doctors were not confident about my full recovery.

But Donovan didn't believe them. He kept fighting for me and remained positive – and, slowly but surely, I started to recover.

I was in rehab for six weeks after my cardiac arrest. I had to learn to walk again and it took some time before I was able to make memories. Even now, there is damage to my heart muscle – I don’t respond well to exertion or stress.

When I was eventually allowed to return home, I researched what had happened to me, and I was shocked to discover that the sudden cardiac arrest survival rate is incredibly low – just five per cent.

We were amazed I had survived.

Listen: The Quicky speaks to an expert cardiologist about protecting ourselves from heart attack. Post continues after video.

That was when we learned about AEDs – and why having one nearby can be absolutely crucial in the moments after a person goes into sudden cardiac arrest. The best chance of survival is when an AED is used within the first few minutes, but for an AED to be useful, it needs to be nearby – for example, in the home.

As someone with Type I diabetes, the risk of me experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest was always higher than average. And I knew I was high risk. In retrospect, you would think I would’ve been the first to get an AED. But before this happened, I didn’t think about it. I hadn't had any heart issues and I was really young.

I know now I was extremely lucky to survive. Most people aren’t as lucky as I was as they don’t receive help in time.

We have since learned of many studies into government funding of AEDs for the households of people at risk. They all say the same thing – yes, AEDs can be effective at improving chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest, but no, the cost-benefit analysis of funding AEDs for every at-risk household does not stack up.

To change this situation, we wanted to make AEDs much more affordable and easy to use. Donovan set himself the task of finding a way to get AEDs into homes after we realised that even a sophisticated health system like Australia’s couldn’t solve it. Fast-forward to today and Donovan and his team have invented CellAED, a hand-held personal defibrillator.

Donovan and I both know how lucky we are that I survived. Too many aren’t so fortunate. 

For anyone who is worried something like this could happen to someone they love, here is my advice: Learn to do CPR and to recognise the signs of sudden cardiac arrest. Then share that knowledge with the people around you. These are the first critical steps towards being ready to help someone survive a sudden cardiac arrest.

I’m alive today because Donovan did that for me.

Image: Supplied.