As an ambulance service, our paramedics often encounter death and tragic incidents. Some of the worse types of cases are deaths that are avoidable.
One such case occurred in February 2005 when a 21 year old nurse, Belinda Davey, tragically died in a Melbourne carpark after taking a cocktail of illegal 'party' drugs. Victorian State Coroner Graeme Johnston held a coronial investigation into the case and ruled that her death may have been avoided had her friends called for an ambulance once they noticed she was unwell.
From this ruling we developed a new advertising campaign encouraging young people to call for an ambulance when they notice that there friends may be suffering from a drug overdose. A media release launching the advert can be found here.
The advertisement was made in conjunction with students from Swinburne University. A media release on this partnership can be found here.
The TV commercial, supplied via YouTube (6Mb):
An article on how paramedics are managing a rise in patients affected by methamphetamine (known as 'ice' or crystal meth) can be found in our December 2006 Perspective publication (p.16).