Well today was the reason I am in London and what a worthwhile and inspiring day it was. I was at a meeting organised by Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK for survivors of SCAs. With the exception of Chris who I met up with yesterday I have never met anyone else who has survived a Sudden Cardiac Arrest so today was very special.
It was nice to meet up with so many lovely people and although I have never met any of them before we all seemed to have a bond already formed by our SCAs which made it very easy for us all to get along.
I was surprised by how young everyone there was and I would guess the average age to be around 40. Most people like myself had no prior health issues and were generally in good to very good health prior to having the SCA and felt nothing beforehand and again like myself the first they knew was waking up from a coma in hospital.
Most people who suffer from an SCA don’t survive or if they do they have quite severe brain damage.
Listening to other people’s stories we all seem to have had an element of luck, either by making a better recovery than most, having someone around who knew what to do and we’re able to perform CPR quickly or as in my case being close to an external defibrillator which helped us to not only survive but survive with only minimal brain damage to enable us to still live a reletively normal life still.
No one no matter how close or well meaning they are can ever really fully understand what we all go through emotionally on a daily basis and it was very comforting to be with people who share this.
The most inspiring thing of the day was seeing how positive everyone one is. I for one have gained a lot from today and hopefully others have too.
Thank you SCA UK for a very remarkable and worthwhile day