By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Mulgrave by-election candidate dropped her pamphleteering to rescue a stranded medical patient in the midst of the Optus outage on Wednesday.
Greens candidate Rhonda Garad was the saviour of Sandown Park rail commuter Ana, stricken with chest pains while awaiting a train to a Victorian Heart Hospital appointment in Clayton.
Due to the network outage, train services were heavily delayed and Ana and Garad’s phones were both down.
At the time, the station was like “zombie land”, Garad said.
“Young kids were staring at mobile phones with nothing on them, people were walking in circles and Ana came up to me and said ‘my chest, my chest, the pain is getting worse…’”
Garad wondered if her nursing training would kick in, and if she’d remember how to perform CPR if required.
Unable to call an ambulance, Uber or taxi, she told Ana to “jump in” her electric car, just hoping that they would reach the hospital in time.
Fortunately, Garad’s car was charged-up because reportedly charging stations were also offline during the outage.
“It was really scary. I got her life story – I was trying to keep her distracted from her chest pain.
“When she got to hospital, she was so relieved.”
Ana insisted on taking a photo in support of Garad’s campaign.
“I want to support you. Please take my photo,” she said.
In the chaos, Garad forgot to get Ana’s number.
“I hope she sends me a message that she’s OK. I think I’ll have a friend for life after this.”
As for Optus, Garad criticised its lack of empathy and communication with customers.
“For a communications company, they need communications training.”
