19 Dec 2025: council staff help woman in cardiac arrest, Xmas appeal

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Council staff tend to elderly woman in cardiac arrest

Enquiry

We are doing a story on how a group of council workers saved the life of an elderly woman who had a cardiac arrest and would like a council comment to go with the story, most likely from whoever oversees their department.

If needed, the background was an incident on Phillip St on November 21, about 2-3pm. The council workers were reportedly fixing a water leak.

Response

From Water Services Delivery Manager Jason Dunweg:

Two of our drinking water crew who arrived at a job on Philip Street and as they were preparing the site with contractors, one of them heard a noise coming from a nearby property and saw a woman laying on the ground.

Our two crew members tended to the woman and our contractors called for an ambulance.

All of our field staff are first aid trained.

Their supervisor followed up with the lady’s family a few days later and we were relieved to hear that she was okay.

Our two staff members will be visiting with the lady who wanted to thank them in person.

They just did what we hope anyone would do in such a situation but we’re very proud of them – they didn’t hesitate to help and their quick actions made a difference.

From CE Andrew Moraes:

I’m really proud of these staff.

Our staff do a fantastic job of doing their jobs and while it’s not often seen or acknowledged, they also often go above and beyond.

The actions of our staff in this situation exemplify the very best of what it is to work for and be part of a community – they are our council legends and were acknowledged by the organisation at our end-of-year all-staff gathering.