MONICA Arundel said she owes her life to the quick thinking action of bystanders, after going into cardiac arrest at Club Savoy in Myrtleford.

And on Friday the Wangaratta grandmother got to personally thank her lifesavers.

Ms Arundel was enjoying lunch with her Probus club in November of 2022 at Club Savoy when she suddenly collapsed.

Luckily, Kelly Barton, an infection prevention control officer from Myrtleford, was in the building and quickly sprung into action to save her life.

“I went over, and a couple of the patrons had popped her into the recovery position, but I had rolled her over back onto her back and checked her pulse to check if she was breathing and started CPR,” Ms Barton said.

While Ms Barton completed CPR, other patrons called 000 and another bystander retrieved a publicly accessible AED before paramedics arrived.

Ms Barton completed CPR on Ms Arundel for around 40 minutes, with ambulance community officer, Chris Walkear, who arrived on the scene within eight-minutes thanks to an alert from the GoodSAM app.

The GoodSAM app is available to anyone over the age of 18 with a first aid certificate to register and alerts the nearest GoodSAM responder of a cardiac arrest near them and where the nearest AED is located.

Mr Walkear said it’s important for CPR to start as soon as possible and that Ms Arundle was lucky Ms Barton was nearby.

Natasha Orfanidis, an Ambulance Victoria paramedic who was at the scene of Ms Arundel’s cardiac arrest, said she encourages people to register for the GoodSAM app and to not be afraid of using the publicly accessible AEDs, which offer voice prompts to walk you through the process.

“The AEDS are all automatic, anyone can use them, it is step by step and it really is fool proof,” she said.

When a patient receives CPR and an electric shock from the an AED before paramedics arrive, their chances of survival doubles.

Mr Walkear said since 2022, the number of AEDs in Myrtleford has increased from around 16 to 34 and it’s important to have more around.

“By using one you can give that poor person every opportunity of survival,” he said.

Ms Arundel said we was "eternally grateful" to her lifesavers and it was wonderful to be able thank them, now that she has fully recovered.

Ms Barton said it was amazing because "you don’t get to see the outcomes and lot of the time when you do the resuscitation the outcome isn’t great.” she said.

To register an AED or see how many devices are registered in your area, visit registermyaed.ambulance.vic.gov.au.

For more information on GoodSAM visit www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/goodsam/.