A good Samaritan and his wife are concerned they may have contracted an infectious disease after helping at the scene of a motorcycle accident in Dunedin last month.
The 57-year-old motorcyclist died suddenly, falling from his machine as he travelled north in South Rd and the vehicle subsequently crashed.
The death was referred to the coroner.
The couple, who do not want to be named, went to the aid of the motorcyclist, he giving mouth-to-mouth and she doing chest compressions, but were unable to resuscitate him.
Concerned that he had a cracked lip at the time, the man sought out the medical history of the man who died, concerned he might have had contracted an infectious disease, like highly contagious hepatitis B.
He was told the man had hepatitis C, and was believed not to have visited a doctor in a while, so they were advised to have tests for four infectious diseases, including HIV.
The tests involved at least three trips to the doctor and would be paid for by Victim Support, he said.
While they had put the incident behind them, they had a message for others who might find themselves in the same situation, he said.
"Unless you know them really, really well, you are better not to do mouth-to-mouth . . . There is so much risk."
St John Coastal Otago district operations manager Dave Jasperse said, when contacted, people needed to be aware of their own safety when helping out at an accident scene.
"The difficulty is that you'll get the good Samaritans who will bowl on in to do CPR with very little regard for their own well-being and find out later the person they have helped had hepC."
If they decided to help, the best idea was to minimise contact when doing CPR, by using small plastic shields, which people could keep in their car for emergencies, or even a handkerchief.
Recent information showed properly applied chest compressions were more beneficial than mouth-to-mouth, in a cardiac arrest situation.
If people were hesitant about giving CPR, they could still help by doing chest compressions, he said.
