Packer whacker love

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.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Packer whacker.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • 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