Riders recognised for race rescue

Race competitors in the 2022 Dwellingup 100 Mountain Bike race were faced with an unexpected challenge of a different kind, after a rider collapsed unconscious from his bike.

Anthony Lynch came across the man who had fallen from his bike after suffering a severe heart attack during the event. He worked together with fellow racers Janelle Hartnett, Kerry Robinson, Aimee Moss and Katharina Peters to try and revive the unconscious man.

Janelle, an off-duty nurse, happened to be running late for the race that day and when she arrived saw the collapsed man with people gathered around him.

“One of our roles [in the emergency department] is to assess and see where we can help so that’s what I did. I was like, no one’s doing airway stuff, I’m going to take ownership, I’m going to make this happen. I took it upon myself to lead the team.”

Janelle took charge of the scene immediately, instructing the others to begin compressions and circulate through the group while she worked on the man’s airway.

“There were a couple of people who didn’t want to breathe into the airway because at the time it was COVID, so I said ‘right, well I’ll do that’.

The group continued their resuscitation efforts until the ambulance crew arrived. Once paramedics had taken over, Janelle worked to reassure the others who were understandably quite shaken. It was the first time some of them had been called on to help in an emergency and emotions were high, so Janelle told them they had done everything they could, as best as they could.

Kerry, who is also a nurse, said it was a very different experience being in a remote location with very little mobile reception.

“Even though we do CPR at work, it’s very different, it’s a very controlled environment when you’ve got all the equipment. When you haven’t got the equipment and it’s in a whole different environment it throws you out completely.”

The man was taken to Royal Perth Hospital where he made a full recovery. For their actions, the group have been recognised with Royal Life Saving Bravery Awards.

Janelle and Aimee (pictured) attended the October 2023 Bravery Awards ceremony in Kings Park where they were presented with their awards and caught up with Mike, the rider they helped rescue. Anthony, Kerry and Katharina, who were unable to attend the ceremony, were presented with their awards separately.

The final instruction in the race briefing is to “look after each other out on the trails” which these award recipients certainly did. Despite being strangers, their quick and decisive response in managing the situation and their ability to work together despite some never having done CPR before resulted in the rider surviving the incident.

Their actions highlight the importance of learning CPR skills as you never know when you might need to use them.