First aid saves mate's life

One Karratha man can say he has a whole "Buncha" luck after his workmates and ambulance officers kept him alive for 34 minutes after his heart stopped.

Robbie "Buncha" Grapes and his colleagues Mick Augustyn, Stephen MacNeall and Luke Grimm had just met up with supervisor Jeff Parker on a Port Hedland mine site when Mr Grimm found his colleague slumped on the ground.

About two years ago, 67-year-old Mr Grapes had a quadruple heart bypass and scar tissue remaining from the surgery caused his heart to stop beating.

With their colleague not breathing and unable to detect a pulse, Mr Parker called 000 while the others started resuscitation.

All four had received first aid training as part of their roles at BGC Contracting.

Working continuously and tirelessly, the men took turns trying to revive their mate until an ambulance arrived.

St John Ambulance paramedics arrived after about 10 minutes and deployed a defibrillator four times to restart Mr Grapes' heart, but it stubbornly refused.

Mr Augustyn, who has worked with Mr Grapes for 10 years, was performing CPR when he started breathing again.

He joked the four had "abused" Buncha to make him get back up off the ground, but no one expected him to start breathing again after four shocks.

"It shows how important the St John courses are - it's not a hard course or a big course. Without us having it, it would have been a different story," he said.

Mr Grapes said he was very grateful his workmates had been around when he collapsed.

"I'm glad they were there, they just kept on going and going," he said.

"Now I make sure they're somewhere close by.

"We do joke about it because they cracked four ribs while they were doing it all and I reckon they used one of the big (dirt compactors) on my chest.

"The ribs are still a bit sore - I complain to them all the time."

Mr Grapes' daughter Lara Oliver said his family would be eternally grateful to the "heroes" who saved his life.

"We can only imagine what those frightening minutes were like for you all and we really have no words to say exactly how much we thank you for not giving up," she said.

"By keeping blood pumping through his body you saved him from any brain damage and/or death.

"We cannot stress how important being trained in CPR is and are so blessed that it was you incredible people that were with him in his time of need."

Mr Grapes spent a week in a Perth hospital and had six weeks recovering at home after having a defibrillator fitted to his heart.