A Massive Shock

Last weekend I returned to Wales to see the family. We had a brilliant Saturday, a round of golf with my Dad in the morning, Wales winning the Grand Slam against France in the afternoon followed by a fabulous Indian takeaway.


Sunday, the plan was to get the family together and go to a local restaurant for a Mother's Day Meal.


This is where things took a massive turn for the worst.....


On the way to the restaurant my Dad was driving, felt unwell and suffered a cardiac arrest in the car. A series of fortunate coincidences came together, I saw the car stop and turned around. The scene I was met with was a massive shock. My Dad was collapsed and was being attended to by a nurse who witnessed what had happened. She found he had no pulse and was administering CPR, I stepped in to help. I managed to perform chest compressions as I'd been trained at work. I think that I got through three cycles of CPR with the nurse. At this point two first responders arrived and took over,shortly afterwards, a paramedic arrived with a defibrillator. This diagnosed Dad's heart had fallen into ventricular fibrillation and effectively he had no circulation. He was connected to the defibrillator within 5-10 minutes of the initial event and electric shocks given to his heart started it beating again. 


This set of circumstances and coincidences probably saved his life!


Since Sunday, Dad has been on the coronary care unit at the University Hospital in Cardiff. The care he has received has been amazing. Today, he was moved from the coroner care unit and onto a high dependancy ward. He can move and is sitting in a chair, and is moaning that his chest hurts :-), it's not surprising after having three people push on for chest for five minutes or so that you are getting a bit of pain!


Two things I want to say, one,  thanks to all the people who helped with Dad, the Nurse at the scene, the first responders and paramedics and the nurses and doctors on the CCU in the hospital. Second, if you are reading this, learn CPR, you could save someones life. Watch this video from video starring Vinnie Jones there are some good tips here from the British Heart Foundation.