Ambulance Victoria is calling on all community members who are confident and willing to perform CPR, including those with first aid training to sign up to the GoodSAM app. By doing so, you can help improve survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Already, 17,327 Victorians have taken up the challenge to become a GoodSAM responder. Their quick actions and willingness to step in have helped save lives, with many cardiac arrest patients alive today thanks to bystander intervention through the app.

The GoodSAM app alerts responders to people in cardiac arrest nearby, so that CPR and defibrillation can be started while emergency services are on the way. We know that cardiac arrest is one of our biggest killers and it can happen to anyone at any time, often without symptoms. Every day, around 21 Victorians suffer a cardiac arrest and, sadly, only one in 10 survive. When a heart stops beating, a person’s chance of survival drops by 10 per cent for every minute without help. By performing hands-only CPR, bystanders can keep someone’s heart pumping in those vital first minutes and more than double their chance of survival.