When Fiona Goldby arrived at work on September 22, she didn't feel right.

By the afternoon, she was clinically dead.

While working at the Ngatea Four Square, Fiona went into cardiac arrest and collapsed behind her checkout counter.

Thanks to the quick actions of her workmates, Fiona is alive to tell the story herself, but the outcome could have been very different.

The day she went into cardiac arrest she went to have her blood pressure checked at lunchtime, which was usually low.

'My chest was feeling tight and my blood pressure was slightly up.

'I thought I might have a chest infection.”

With nothing too out of the ordinary showing, she went back to work.

About 2pm, she collapsed.

Ngatea Four Square Owner, Richie Saunders, says he was working in the shop at the time when he heard one of his staff calling for help, which was unusual.

He rushed to the checkout and saw Fiona on the floor.

They realised she wasn't breathing so moved her out from behind the counter, with colleague Jake Coleman starting chest compressions while Saunders grabbed the defibrillator.

'We noticed her colour changing from grey to blue.”

Jake started CPR while Saunders set up the defibrillator, with the pair shocking Fiona three times before emergency services arrived.

Richie says they had lost a workmate suddenly in May 2020 – Bronwyn Wathne, 49 – who died in her sleep, so this was tough to deal with after that.

'This brought all the emotion back for everyone.

'I remember [a staff member] saying ‘not again, not again'.

'We just did everything we could to bring [Fiona] back.”

Fiona says she doesn't remember much from the day.

'It was a heart attack that triggered the cardiac arrest.

'My artery was somewhere between 90-98 per cent blocked, and I had, had no indication.”

She says she's lucky she was at work when it happened as she could have been home alone, or working the after school shift with fewer senior staff.

A report done by St John released on Wednesday, showed in 2020 more than 2000 people were treated for a cardiac arrest in the community.

Only 31 per cent of those survived to hospital arrival.

This survival rate was now the lowest amongst the five emergency services St John benchmarks against and clinical director Dr Tony Smith said more work and resources were needed to save more lives.

The Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report also showed Māori and Pasifika are more likely to have a cardiac arrest and less likely to survive.

Tony says more work is needed to raise public awareness of the importance of bystander CPR and the use of defibrillators.

'Bystanders can save lives by starting CPR, as early intervention can double the chance of survival.

'Everyone can learn CPR and using a defibrillator is simple – if you know how to use a cell phone, you can save a life.”

Fiona echoes how important an AED machine is.

'I owe my life and my future to the AED machine and my colleagues because everyone seemed to know what to do – they went into fight mode.

'They changed gear and knew what had to be done. They did everything.”

Fiona turns 54 on Saturday and says she will be celebrating her birthday with her family.

She encourages everyone to do a first aid course and learn CPR, as well as learning how to use an AED machine.

'On that day, my husband went to work and kissed me goodbye and said, ‘see you tonight'.

'He nearly didn't see me that night. I could've worked with people who didn't know what to do, and I would've been gone.”

St John paramedic and acting station manager for St John Ngatea, Julia Te Huia says it's the bystanders who provided lifesaving treatment that day.

On arrival, Te Huia did an assessment and noticed there was some breathing.

She managed to connect their defibrillator to the AED (automated external defibrillator) machine Saunders had been using and could see the heart rhythm had returned.

'They gave her a fighting chance and allowed us to do what we could.

”We placed her on our stretcher, then into the ambulance, then drove her around to where the [helicopter] was waiting.”

-Stuff/Kirsty Lawrence.