Petra – heart recipient, VIC

In 2018, Petra was enjoying a routine daily jog along the beach when she suddenly collapsed and went into cardiac arrest due to an undiagnosed heart defect.    

Shocked to find the 35-year-old unconscious and without a pulse, one quick-thinking passer-by started performing CPR, while another called for an ambulance.    

Paramedics worked tirelessly to revive Petra, both at the scene by connecting her to a breathing machine preventing severe brain damage, and during the urgent trip to hospital, where she would spend the next month in a medically-induced coma and on life support.  

Petra’s heart was connected to a mechanical pump on the outside of her chest, but to survive irreparable heart failure, she needed a crucial, life-saving heart transplant.   
  
After two months in the Intensive Care Unit, a heart became available, thanks to the generosity of a family that consented to their loved one becoming an organ donor.    

“I am alive today thanks to the incredible work and quick-thinking of Ambulance Victoria paramedics, specialists at The Alfred hospital, and the selflessness of a donor family who said ‘yes’ to organ donation during their time of grief,” Petra said.  

“I am indebted to them all and they fuel my commitment to staying fit, healthy and strong. I received the greatest gift of a new heart and a new life, and each day when I exercise, I push myself to do my best because that’s when I feel the most alive and present.”