Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the memory of the late Laurie Slattery, a highly regarded member of my local community. During the 1960s, a 20-year-old Laurie Slattery volunteered for a groundbreaking study on resuscitation for the Royal Lifesaving Association. This study was dangerous, in fact life threatening, as Laurie was given a general anaesthetic and then injected with curare, a poison that renders people incapable of breathing.

Laurie was kept alive for 90 minutes by various methods of resuscitation while blood tests were taken to establish the oxygen levels in his blood. This led to the development of the expired air resuscitation method, better known as 'mouth-to-mouth', which is now the standard method of resuscitation used by lifeguards throughout the world—a breakthrough which has saved countless lives. For his bravery, Laurie Slattery was given the British Empire Medal, after being named in the Queen's 1961 honours list for the 'calculated risking of one's life or health in the cause of humanity'.

Laurie was the captain of the Carss Park Life Saving Club. He taught children across the state how to swim, and for that he became known as 'king of the kids'. Not surprisingly, he never tired of giving demonstrations of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! Despite his death in 2006, at the age of 67, Laurie remains a symbol of that great human nature and that ever-present Aussie spirit. Laurie Slattery will never be forgotten by his family or community.