Back from the dead, Tim owes his life to CPR

DYING was no problem for Southside's Tim Frodsham, as he lay on the bottom of Gympie's Memorial pool 12 years ago.

"I wasn't even there,” he said yesterday, as Gympie region communities took in the sad news of Sunday's drowning tragedy at Tin Can Bay.

CLICK HERE: To read more about the Tin Can Bay tragedy

But while Mr Frodsham was absent from this life, others worked to bring him back.

He has no recollection of their pool-side efforts, but he knows he owes his survival to cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known by its initials, CPR.

"For goodness' sake learn to do it,” he said yesterday.

His ambulance officer friend, Wayne Sachs, watched as colleagues used a defibrillator to shock Mr Frodsham's heart back into beating.

But there would have been nothing to save if CPR had not kept his brain supplied with oxygen until the ambulance arrived.

Mr Frodsham's heart stopped without warning as he swam laps on October 31, 2005.

"People saw me lying on the bottom of the pool and realised I didn't usually muck around like that.

"They dragged me out and gave me CPR. I don't want this story to be about me. I want it to be about CPR and how lucky I was that someone on hand knew how to do it. I firmly believe kids from 10 or 12 years old should be taught CPR.”

"I'm very lucky. Every morning's a bonus,” he said.

Mr Sachs, now Gympie's Queensland Ambulance Service officer in charge, says CPR has changed and people need to update their skills.

"What we do now is more aggressive.”

He says figures show CPR is a significant factor in saving lives. "If we go to an incident and CPR is already being performed, that person's chances are much higher by a long shot.”