Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Australia, colloquial, informal A
portable defibrillator .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
The name came about when Kerry Packer, a wealthy Australian media mogul, was resuscitated with a defibrillator in 1990 in Sydney after suffering a heart attack. After recovering, Packer donated a large sum to the New South Wales Ambulance Service in order to fit all of its ambulances with portable defibrillators.
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bilby commented on the word Packer whacker
As Wiktionary notes, 'a portable defibrillator'. Epithet came after one was used to revive then Australia's wealthiest tycoon Kerry Packer. As I remember it wasn't common for ambulances at the time to have such equipment and it was plain luck that one happened to be in the ambulance that came to his aid. Afterwards, a grateful Packer paid half the cost of equipping every ambulance in his home state with a defibrillator.
October 3, 2010