Colleagues of a beloved Coles manager who died of cardiac arrest before he could bring his family to Australia from India say his life might have been saved if he had been given CPR.
Vaibhav Kaushik, 39, was standing on the steps of his Melbourne home when he suddenly started vomiting after a night out on November 15.
His Uber driver rushed to help and called triple-0 when he collapsed.
One of Mr Kaushik’s Coles colleagues at the Port Melbourne store, Mona Patel, said his heart stopped for more than half an hour, resulting in catastrophic brain damage due to lack of oxygen.
Supermarket workers are now raising money to install community defibrillators and improve public CPR training to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
He was treated at the Royal Melbourne Hospital until his family made the difficult choice to withdraw his life support on November 21.
Vaibhav Kaushik (above) died after a cardiac arrest on November 15, during which his heart stopped for more than half an hour
He was a month away from his 40th birthday.
Mr Kaushik had not seen his family, who live in India, for more than a decade. They did not get a chance to see his body before it was cremated.
Ms Patel said Mr Kaushik was a well-liked manager at Coles and acted as a “father figure” to some younger employees.
‘I felt like I had known him all my life. He loved life. He took care of everyone and always had a smile on his face,” she said 7News.
“He had the biggest heart and the kindest soul. Always motivated others to do the best. Always took care of everyone and that big heart was the first thing that failed.”
Mr Kaushik, nicknamed VB, worked at Coles Port Melbourne for about a year and was saving to move his family to Australia.
Coles workers are raising money for better CPR training in the community after hearing that Mr Kaushik (above) could have survived if he had been given CPR
His colleagues have started one GoFundMe to help his family cover the costs of his funeral and to organize CPR training for the community.
“The main thing in VB’s case, why he couldn’t survive, was that he wasn’t given CPR in time,” Ms Patel said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser had received 175 donations worth more than $16,000.