We’re proud to announce our new series of videos with five survivors talking openly and succinctly about their cardiac arrest lived experiences.
Not knowing what the future holds can be a very worrying time after an SCA and one way to reduce this anxiety is to learn about other survivors’ experiences. Everyone’s SCA and recovery are unique but there are common themes that crop up and our volunteers talk about some of the most frequent:
- Fatigue
- Cognition
- Mood
- Life
- Normality
The five survivors, Gareth, Ingrid, Ash, Charlotte and Freddie are at varying times post-arrest but all are over the “honeymoon” period where life can be very much a roller-coaster.
We’d like to thank them for their dedication and for talking openly about their experience, which isn’t always easy.
The recordings were made via Zoom calls and the survivors were given instructions to briefly talk about their experience of each subject. Each of the clips has been compiled into a single theme video, each roughly around 10 minutes long. These have been collated into a playlist to allow easy navigation, however, the videos can be viewed individually in their own right.
V-CARE
The instigation behind the creation of these videos is for the pilot V-CARE (Virtual Care After REsuscitation) – a new online offering from the excellent Essex Cardiothoracic Centre for future patients unable to attend their in-person CARE offering.
This is part of a study being kindly funded by the Resuscitation Council UK and whilst the V-CARE offering is not available to the wider public we can share these initial videos.
After our first meet-up in February 2015, I realised I was not alone. It was the first time since my cardiac arrest the previous year that I had spoken face-to-face with someone who had experienced what I had. This was also true for my wife, who also happened to be my lifesaver. From that meet-up, the idea of SCA UK was born. Since then, we have achieved a considerable amount, primarily providing information, resources and support to others in a similar situation but also raising the profile of survivorship and the need for better post-discharge care. We are starting to get traction in this, and with the formation of the charity, I genuinely believe we have a bright future ahead and will make a significant difference in the lives of many who join our ranks.