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CPR training saves life after Port Lincoln man collapses at car wash
Andrew Lear (left) and Steve Whait (right) saved Malcolm Harris's life. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Emma Pedler)
When Port Lincoln man Malcolm Harris saved a man's life using CPR in the 1980s, he never thought the favour might be returned one day.
That changed in May when the 82-year-old went to wash his car and blacked out.
"I go down to the car wash and usually put a couple of $2 coins in. I can remember putting the first one in, but not the second," Mr Harris said.
"Next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed."
Andrew Lear found Malcolm Harris unconscious after the 82-year-old suffered a heart attack. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Emma Pedler)
Andrew Lear arrived to wash his own car when he found Mr Harris on the ground unconscious and without a pulse.
"When I found him, he was bleeding from the mouth and nose, and he was a bit of a mess,"he said.
"The hose was actually still going and the trigger was still on, so I don't know how long he'd been there."
The prawn fisherman said he had undertaken cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training "more than a dozen times, at least" over the past 30 years for his job, but had not once needed it.
Andrew Lear is required to do regular CPR training as part of his prawn-fishing job. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Emma Pedler)
That was until that day at the car wash.
"Adrenaline gets going; you hope you're doing the right thing. Obviously, what I had learnt was [still] in my head, and it worked,"Mr Lear said.
"Doing it in a classroom on the floor with a bunch of guys that I know … I mean, it's just not the same."
CPR is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions and rescue breaths to help someone who has stopped breathing or whose heart has stopped beating.
It is a life-saving technique that can keep blood circulating and deliver oxygen to the brain and other vital organs until proper medical help is rendered.
Mr Lear said the sheer adrenaline of the situation made it difficult to estimate how long he performed CPR on Mr Harris, but it might have been about 15 minutes before he was exhausted.
Another bystander had called triple-0 and it was critical Mr Harris kept receiving CPR until help arrived.
Fortunately, another good Samaritan, Steve Whait, arrived at that point to take over.
The electrician is also trained in CPR.
Andrew Lear and Steve Whait performed CPR on Malcolm Harris for about 20 minutes. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Emma Pedler)
"I was pretty sure there were ribs that were cracked or broken and that I wasn't making it any better," Mr Whait said.
"But the training tells you that sometimes ribs break, so I just kept going even when I heard another crack.
"Being an electrician, we have to do rescue training each year, but this was the first time I had to apply it."
Both said they had dodgy knees but did not think about it.
"I was buggered so Steve took over, and I think he might have been going about five minutes, and by that stage, the ambulance was there," Mr Lear said.
"The first zap of the defibrillator didn't do anything, but [with] the second one, they got a weak pulse, and we started to feel a bit better."
Mr Lear was full of praise for Ambulance SA staff, but said the uncertainty of whether Mr Harris would survive was excruciating.
"I stood back against my car afterwards and pretty much was shaking because I didn't know whether he was alive or not,"he said.
"I was numb, not knowing what to do. I was going to ring my partner … but I thought, 'What am I gonna say to her?'
"So, initially, I just didn't say anything. She eventually found out."
'The difference between life and death'
Australian Red Cross (ARC), which provides first aid and CPR training to members of the public, has seen a year-on-year increase of between 8 and 10 per cent in uptake, but said it needed to be much higher.
"This is a welcome increase, but the reality is we're still behind," said ARC's head of first aid and mental health training, Wendy Greenhalf.
"Australia continues to rank among the lowest globally when it comes to first aid training.
"That means fewer people ready to step in and save a life when it matters most."
ARC says about one in three Australians have completed first aid training in the past three years. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
Only about one in three Australians have completed first aid training in the past three years.
"Emergencies happen every day in homes, schools, workplaces and communities, so the need for more people to be prepared has never been more urgent," Ms Greenhalf said.
"Knowing what to do in those critical first minutes can mean the difference between life and death."
New friendship after close call
While working as a prison guard in the 1980s, Mr Harris himself saved a prisoner in a similar fashion, having only learnt CPR earlier that week.
Malcolm Harris saved a man's life using CPR in the 1980s. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Emma Pedler)
At 82, the retiree has already seen off pancreatic cancer and several serious heart surgeries.
Since his close call at the car wash, Mr Harris has struck up a friendship with Mr Lear.
"I was in ICU. They put me in a coma to keep me going. I was three-and-a-half days in Adelaide before I woke up," Mr Harris recalled.
"Andrew [Lear] came and visited, brought me up a little present, a box of prawns.
"I heard from someone that knows him that he likes a little whiskey, so we had a nice bottle of that there waiting for him.
"The other day, we had a nice little luncheon and a good chat. It was most enjoyable."
Editor's note 19/7/2025: This story has been amended to correct Mr Harris's age.