Warriors doctor donates 24/7 defibrillator after man's close call

Warriors doctor John Mayhew has donated a 24/7 defibrillator to the Highbury community after a man almost died.

On Easter Monday the man collapsed with a cardiac arrest on Mokoia Rd in Highbury, North Shore.

A teacher and flight attendant, who happened to be passing by, performed CPR while two teenagers frantically searched for a defibrillator. But being a public holiday there were none.

Paramedics were called and the man was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Mayhew has been campaigning for more defibrillators since he too came minutes away from death suffering a cardiac arrest back in 2016.

"This incident is yet another example highlighting the importance of having community defibrillators accessible and available 24/7 because someone can have a cardiac arrest at anytime."

Another doctor, Glenn Mulholland, who caught the end of the incident when driving home from work, and his wife Rachael shared the story on Facebook and received "an overwhelming response".

"Glenn came home that day frustrated that there were no defibrillators available saying the man came so close to death," Rachael said.

She said in a bid to rally the community together he posted the story on a community Facebook page.

"Hundreds of people were responding to the post saying how terrible it was and that something needed to be done."

It wasn't long before Mayhew spotted the post and offered, with his wife Sue, to donate one.

Together, with Rachael's efforts to find an accessible wall that was sheltered, the group officially opened the 24/7 defibrillators this morning outside Kiwibank on Mokoia Rd.

Defibrillators have been available in New Zealand for more than 10 years.

There are now more than 2000 publicly available defibrillators in the greater Auckland region and more than 7000 across the country but only a handful are available 24/7.