15 minutes of CPR outside a clinic that allegedly kept its defibrillator locked

The gym released its defibrillator. The medical centre allegedly didn’t

On the afternoon of Thursday 11 September 2026, a man collapsed on the footpath outside Mt Albert Medical Centre on New North Rd in Auckland at 4:25pm. Leoni McInroe, a former anaesthetic technician who runs a business nearby, performed CPR for about 15 minutes until paramedics arrived.

According to McInroe and other witnesses, staff at the medical centre said the man was not their patient and allegedly refused to provide a defibrillator or even a pillow to protect his head as it hit the concrete. McInroe told the NZ Herald a medical centre refused to lend its defibrillator or send a doctor because the man was not a patient. A defibrillator was eventually sourced from a nearby gym. The man died, and police referred the sudden death to the coroner.

These are witness accounts, not findings. Practice manager Monali Barot said the centre was “deeply saddened by the tragedy” and is cooperating with authorities, and McInroe has filed a formal complaint with the Medical Council. The allegations against Mt Albert Medical Centre are unproven. But the operational problem they expose exists regardless of how the coroner rules, and it should worry every organisation that has ever bought emergency equipment as a box-ticking exercise.

The number that should stop you

Here is the gap that matters. In the year to 30 June 2025, 2,466 people were treated for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in New Zealand, and only 12% survived to 30 days. Bystanders are doing their part – 81% of witnessed arrests received bystander CPR. But only 6% received defibrillation from a community responder before the ambulance arrived.

That 81 versus 6 is the whole story. People are willing to help. The shock they need to save a life is locked in a cabinet, or registered to a staff member who is on leave, or waiting for a manager to sign it out.

And the shock is decisive. For patients with a shockable rhythm, those who received community defibrillation had 2.5 times the survival rate of those who did not. The median urban ambulance response time is 8 minutes, and survival falls roughly 10% for every minute that defibrillation is delayed. Eight minutes without a shock is most of a life. Back in 2021/22 the community defibrillation rate was 5%; three years later it is 6%. The needle has barely moved.

The warning was already on the record

This failure mode was flagged six weeks before the Mt Albert death. In July 2026, Jon Moores, deputy chief executive of clinical services at Hato Hone St John, asked the question directly: “Do we want that AED behind locked doors, locked cabinets, and unavailable to the people around the community?”

Moores proposed an unlocked cabinet model, “almost like the community library box that sits on the side of your fence” – well marked, readily accessible. He drew a building-code parallel, noting that when he renovated his bathroom the council required smoke alarms, and asked whether the same thinking should apply to AED access. He acknowledged the cost barrier – St John sells the devices at $2,760 to $4,981 against smoke alarms at $10 to $50 – but noted prices are falling as more brands enter the market.

The question your organisation has to answer

This is not a compliance story. There is currently no New Zealand law requiring most businesses to hold a defibrillator. It is an operational risk story, and the question is uncomfortable in its simplicity – who at your site is authorised to release the defibrillator, under what circumstances, and without waiting for anyone’s permission?

A device that requires manager sign-off, or lives in a locked first-aid room, or is tied to one named staff member, offers nothing in the first critical minutes of a cardiac event. Worse, it creates reputational and legal exposure if a death occurs and it later emerges the equipment was present but inaccessible. The sectors this touches are broad – medical and allied health, malls, gyms, offices, factories, hospitality, sports grounds, schools. Any of them that bought a defibrillator to feel safe needs a written protocol that does not hinge on a specific person being on shift.

The gym in the Mt Albert story handed over its device without apparent hesitation. That is the model, and it costs nothing to copy. The policy horizon is a separate debate – whether New Zealand follows Moores’ building-code logic and mandates accessible AEDs, or waits for more coroner findings to pile up. But no business needs to wait for legislation to answer the only question that matters on the day. Can the person standing over a collapsed body get to the shock in time, or will they be told it is not their patient?

Sources

• Members of public gave CPR to dying Auckland man, allege medical centre refused use of defibrillator (2026-09-11)
• Medical centre refused doctor, defibrillator after man collapsed outside, witness claims (2026-09-11)
• HQ4201a OHCA All NZ – Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report 2024/25 (2026-02)
• Is it time to make defibrillators as common as smoke alarms? (2026-07-31)
• Defibrillators should be as common as smoke alarms, St John clinical chief says (2026-07-31)
• Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Registry – February 2023 (2023-02)