Going back to the 3rd of April 2022, it was a day that started normally. My son and I went to a walking football tournament at Caldicot Leisure Centre. It was an over-50s tournament, and he came along for moral support. He loves football, so he wanted to watch. We arrived as normal, got changed, and I played the first game—they’re 10–12 minute games and are 6-aside.
We had two teams, so after I played, I stood watching the other team play. I was standing next to Martin, who is an ex-police officer. I don’t remember much of this as I don’t have any recollection of the day past getting changed.
I was talking to Martin, and I just collapsed in front of him.
The Chain of Survival
He put me in the recovery position. He took my pulse, and he said it was very faint, and then it stopped, and I had stopped breathing. He turned me over on my back, and then one of our other football players, who is ex-military, came running over. He knew what had happened and had received CPR training as part of his military training, so he started CPR.
Our manager and coach then phoned 999, and one of the other players ran across to get the staff at the leisure centre to see whether there was a defib.
Three Caldicott Leisure Centre staff members came out with a pack ready to go, containing a defib and other things. They came over, and Justin, the manager, took over the CPR.
Justin took over, gave me some mouth-to-mouth, and carried on CPR while Kirsty (another leisure centre staff member) was preparing the defib. Brydon (also another leisure centre staff member) then took over the CPR from Justin. They were doing it in shifts while the pads were being attached. Kirsty later told me that she had problems trying to cut the football shirt off, but the others were saying just rip it off—never mind cutting it!
The defib booted up, they put the pads on, and it talked them through the process. It took three of those shocks to bring me back, and then it went into a normal rhythm. Kirsty seems to think it was about 8 minutes from my collapse until the final defib shock.
The Wales Air Ambulance had arrived within twenty minutes of the call which is pretty impressive. A lady called Ruby, who I have now since met, came to the scene immediately and saw that I was in quite a bad way and needed to be on a ventilator, be intubated and to be knocked out. This meant I needed a doctor, but they didn’t have a doctor on that helicopter, so they sent another one.
A doctor arrived on the second one and administered the anaesthetic to me while Ruby was preparing me.
Unfortunately, my son Joseph, who was 15 at the time, was there watching everything. The players took him away and put him in the leisure centre. They told him he didn’t need to watch what was happening to me as it was very traumatic for him to see that. In the meantime, one of the players (Mike) spoke to my wife, Mel and said, “he’s okay – he’s collapsed, but he has CPR.” She got in the car and drove hell for leather down the M4 towards Caldicot, but luckily, a friend of ours – Amanda – lives just up the road from Caldicot Leisure Centre and was able to come and get Joseph. She told me later that she took Joseph to see me before I went in the ambulance. And that’s quite heartbreaking to know.
Amanda was also able to tell Mel a bit more about what was happening and said I would be taken by road ambulance to Cardiff. This was because I wasn’t in a state to go in the air ambulance because they were worried that I was going to arrest again, and there isn’t any space to do CPR in the air ambulance. It’s easier to go by road because they can pull over and administer CPR if need be.
Diagnosis and Recovery
I was admitted to the hospital. My wife and family members experienced 27 and a half hours in the resus room sitting with me to see if I was alright. The first thing I remember is waking up in the resus room with them all sort of sat there like, how did I get here? What’s going on?
Mel explained it to me, but I didn’t remember, and I just kept asking her the same questions. They thought that I had short-term memory loss, which I did and still do a bit now, but there were a lot of drugs that were administered to me at the time, and my body had received a massive shock.
I do actually remember being on the ward – I had six broken ribs from the CPR – it was quite painful. I got put into a cardiac ward, and that’s when I started to wake up, and the drugs started to wear off. I remember more from there, but I kept asking Mel whether I had had a stroke or not whilst in resus. There was a board in front of me, a whiteboard, and it said cardiac arrest, and I kept asking every time I woke up if I had a cardiac arrest. Every time they replied yes, My wife asked the nurse to wipe it off, so I didn’t wake up and see it straight away!
This was a really traumatic time for Mel, more so than for me, as I don’t remember it. And for the people who were administering CPR because they see you go and then you disappear, and they don’t know what happened. The tournament was cancelled because they had to clear the goals from the pitches to let the air ambulance land. We’ve got pictures of the air ambulance on both sides of the pitch, one on one side and one on the other.
A couple of days later, I had two stents fitted and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy diagnosed. This meant that Professor Yousef, who was the consultant in Cardiff, decided that I needed a dual lead ICD fitted as well. It was quite a big shock for the family, obviously. The two stents made me feel better almost instantly, and then the decision was made to put the ICD in. Everything was explained by a specialist ICD nurse in Cardiff, who was fantastic, and a lady called Trudie, who really explained everything. She had an ICD in a box and said this is what it is, this is what it’ll do, this is the impact it will have on your life. And it does impact your life.
The HCM diagnosis came as a shock because there’s nobody in our family with HCM. My son has already had an echocardiogram, and there are no signs of it at the moment. My father and my brother both died young from heart disease, but that was in the early nineties, and there wasn’t necessarily the test – it could have been; it just wasn’t recorded. I have now finished genetic testing and do not carry the HCM gene.
Life After Cardiac Arrest
And to think I could have been anywhere – I mean, we drove an hour and 15 minutes to get to Caldicot.
Why didn’t it happen then?
Why didn’t it happen an hour before…
…or why didn’t it happen when I was walking my dogs on my own?
If I had been on my own, then I wouldn’t be sitting here.
So, why did it happen when someone stood next to me who knew CPR, and there were trained people?
I think that chain of survival is the key part for me, realising there might not have been a trained person on site; they might not have had a defib. All these things fell into place for me that don’t fall into place for other people, and I was just lucky that they did. I have since spoken to other people where it didn’t fall into place, where they didn’t have a defib available, and their loved ones didn’t make it.
Giving Back and Spreading Awareness
I have retired from work, and now I am helping as much as I can. So, I am helping the cardiomyopathy group and the Welsh Air ambulance, volunteering for them, just doing speeches and talks, trying to raise as much awareness as possible, trying to get CPR, and trying to get defibs around so people know where they are. I think for me, it’s trying to get people who run small groups, community associations, and even a yoga class to learn CPR, just in case.
Peer Support is incredibly important as it allows people to talk to others who have undergone the same trauma. It is not just the patient; it is everyone who is affected by the incident. Not everyone makes it, and they need as much support as possible.
I went back to playing walking football in October 2023 after the cardiologist said it was okay to go back and do some exercise. There’s a social aspect to it, too; obviously, knowing you’re there lifts you. There’s a whole psychological aspect as well. I wanted to get back and play to get over that hurdle and say that I could still do it.
I’ve also been back to see the staff at the leisure centre. I had phoned them and left a message, then I got an email from Justin about six months later who said he had never got the message about what happened to me. So, I emailed him back and said I am here, and he asked me to go down and see him. The two people working there don’t work there anymore but they came back for the day.
We were standing in reception, and Mel obviously never went to the leisure centre because she was diverted off to the hospital. So she said, “What does he look like?” I said, “I don’t know; I was out of it.” I had no idea what he looked like. He came down the stairs and said,
“I never forget the face of a man I’ve kissed.”
We went out to the pitch and got a picture taken to say, “This is where it happened“. I’ve also been back to see the air ambulance team to thank them and go to their gala dinner. There’s a whole chain of people who made sure right from the start that made sure I survived, that I am still here. I laughed and joked with the air ambulance guy who said it cost two and a half thousand to put an air ambulance in the air in fuel and you owe me five grand because there were two.
The Lasting Impact
I started driving again in October 2023. Not driving had a major impact on me. I’ve had a driving licence for 34 years and am used to getting in the car. But then you can’t drive, and you’re relying on your family and friends and putting extra pressure on them.
I also wrote a book called One in Ten Survivor. It’s on Amazon and goes into much more detail about life afterwards, like with the DVLA, driving, insurance, benefits, living differently, the whole thing.
The benefits, I’ve never claimed benefits, and it’s a minefield; the DVLA were great in the end, but that was initially a minefield because I’ve got an ICD. I can’t drive for six months, and if it fires, you can’t drive for two years.
You don’t get told all these things initially, but you find out later.
My family and I will be forever grateful to those people on that day, my chain of survival was never broken, people acted fast, and this helped to ensure that I am here today, each link was strong and although we have thanked them personally, it will never be enough. This is why I volunteer and have trained as a Peer Support Facilitator, providing support courses and making people aware of Sudden Cardiac Arrest, CPR, Defibs, Cardiomyopathy and the Wales Air Ambulance.
Very insightful. I too am a survivor, January 2023. Thank you for posting this article.
It’s been 17 months now since my SCA and I’m only now beginning to come to terms with what happened.