David Browne the Survivor

He was dropped by a sudden cardiac arrest. His heart stopped and he was, for a while, dead.

As a colleague began CPR, another ran for the defibrillator.

The electrode pads were placed on his chest, one just below his right collarbone and the other on the left side over his lower ribs. Voice prompts on the machine told the operator that a shock was needed and to push the button to deliver it.

Mr Browne’s heart began beating and he started breathing again.

The first ambulance paramedics, Dean Jensen and Desmond Keane, arrived on the scene at 10 minutes after receiving the call.

As they walked in the door, Mr Browne’s heart stopped again and they shocked him to restart it.

Mr Browne had always encouraged first-aid courses for the company’s 200 employees, bringing in tutors to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, and the like: “And I think one of them said to me that if we were going to do CPR, why not go the whole hog.”

“This might sound like hindsight, but the demographic of stockbroking, with the tension that arises, is probably a monte for somebody, somewhere, to have this sort of problem,” says Mr Browne. “I just didn’t expect to be the first guinea pig.”

“They’re easy to use, you’re prompted all the way, you don’t need any medical knowledge… All it needs is someone to grab that machine and turn it on.”