sport, local-sport, penshurst, luke ferguson, football, cardiac arrest, defibrillator, luke, ferguson

UPDATE – 10am, Monday April 30 Penshurst footballer Luke Ferguson remains in a stable condition at University Hospital Geelong four days after going into cardiac arrest at training. A hospital spokesperson confirmed the 26-year-old was been removed from his coma at the weekend and is “doing much better”. Ferguson has also been moved out of the intensive care unit into a ward. His team recorded a 31-point win against Hawkesdale-Macarthur in his absence on Saturday. UPDATE – 12.40pm, Friday April 27 Penshurst footballer Luke Ferguson is in stable condition after suffering a cardiac arrest last night. A Geelong University Hospital spokesperson confirmed Ferguson’s condition has been updated from critical to stable today. Saturday’s Mininera and District Football League match between Penshurst and Hawkesdale-Macarthur will go ahead at this point in time. League president John Box said the league and Penshurst have been in discussions about this weekend’s game. “At this stage everything will go ahead as scheduled,” he said. “We have had ongoing contact with the club last night and today. “Our main concern is for Luke.” The league has the option to play the match on May 19 when the league has a bye if they cannot do so tomorrow. Ferguson was revived at training by a defibrillator the club had on hand. All Mininera league clubs have defibrillators in their clubrooms in an initiative introduced by the league.  “It is something we pushed very hard for in case situations such as these ever arose,” Box said. “You never want to use them but when you have got them there they can potentially save lives like in this case.”  Earlier – 8.45am, Friday April 27 A Penshurst footballer has been revived by club members after suffering a cardiac arrest at training on Thursday night.  26-year-old Luke Ferguson collapsed at about 7pm last night, roughly five minutes into the session. Teammates and an off-duty nurse were forced to use a defibrillator to revive the Mininera league footballer. Penshurst president Brenden Cottrill said everyone in the vicinity of Ferguson “got straight to work”. “It was a bit of a shock but people were into action straight away,” he said. “It was lucky some of the netball players are nurses so they were able to lead the way using the defibrillator. “After about 20 minutes an ambulance to arrived and by then we had stabilised him a bit.” Ferguson was placed in an induced coma and airlifted to Geelong University Hospital in a critical condition. Cottrill said the use of the defibrillator and swift medical action “saved Luke’s life”. “He had virtually stopped breathing so I think the defibrillator definitely saved his life,” he said. “After this I would encourage every club to have CPR trained people around as well as access to a defibrillator. “Luke has no prior history so it shows it can happen to anyone.” Penshurst police Senior Constable Shaun McCulloch said Ferguson was breathing and self-functioning before being placed in the induced coma to assist his recovery. "If this incident had happened to anyone else there would likely have been a different outcome," he said. "It was the best outcome, to have that episode with all that support and resources on hand saved Luke’s life.” Penshurst’s round three Mininera and District Football League match against Hawkesdale-Macarthur is now in doubt. “We will meet with the league at around lunch time today to discuss the situation,” Cottrill said. “At this stage our main priority is the health and wellbeing of Luke. “All of our thoughts are with him and his family and the community will rally behind them all.”

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