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Southampton medical school has a good side -
we train hard and we play hard too.
I don't remember anything about Sunday the 6th
November 2005. The last thing I remember was finishing an exam on Friday
afternoon. However on Sunday I ran out to play for the medics in a local
cup competition. It was just another game I was probably fairly relaxed
yet a bit nervous too. The week before we had played a far harder game
against Cardiff medics and I remember being very nervous before that game.
Anyway about 8 minutes into the game I made a big tackle. I was slow
to get up as I had collided heads with a prop - not a good move when you
are a winger - but I got up all the same and carried on playing.
Unfortunately, two minutes later I collapsed on the floor, fitting.
Immediately one of my friends whipped out my gum shield and I probably owe
him my life. When I stopped fitting, my friends (fellow medical students)
found that I had stopped breathing and they couldn't find a pulse -
scuppering their initial diagnosis of epilepsy. They immediately started
CPR which they carried on for 25 minutes until paramedics arrived. I was
found to be in VF (a form of cardiac arrest) and was defibrillated back
into sinus rhythm after I think 3 shocks.
I was whisked off to the Royal Hants County
Hospital Winchester A&E department where I was initially investigated for
a head injury. I was found to have aspirated my vomit - a common, often
fatal, complication for the lucky few who survive an arrest. I was
therefore kept sedated on a ventilator in intensive care to try and
improve my lungs. Fortunately and against the odds I did start to get
better and they brought me off the ventilator a week later. My family had
been prepared for the worst, even if I could handle being off the
ventilator, brain damage due to the lack of Oxygen my brain had received
was still a distinct possibility. I can remember waking up and wondering
where I was and why all my family were around me crying. That image will
live with me all my life and it’s one that I would hate for anybody to go
through.
The next three days I remained in Intensive
Care and they were the scariest days of my life, as I hallucinated due to
the drugs they had given me to keep me sedated. It was a very confusing
time as I was still not sure where I was and what had happened. However
when these stopped I was moved to a Rehab and Developmental Unit to assess
me for any brain damage I may have suffered and incredibly they found no
evidence of this and I was discharged from hospital six days later.
I was referred to a cardiologist, Dr Rowland,
at St. George’s hospital London. I was given an Echo and an ECG and told I
had Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). At first I
couldn’t believe it, I was one of the fittest people I knew and exercised
almost every day, how could I have a heart condition?
A week later I went back to St. George’s to
have an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) fitted which shocks
my heart if it is going too fast - which has only happened once so far. I
am not going to pretend recovering from a cardiac arrest is easy, I have
had a lot of help from friends and family and I still occasionally have
flashbacks and nightmares, but I do look forward to each day I so nearly
didn’t get. Although I may no longer be able to fulfil my life-long
ambition of playing on the wing for Wales, I am able now to live a normal
life. I returned to medical school 8 weeks later and have just completed
my fourth year. I can go out with my friends, do light exercise and I even
made it back to rugby training, although a further episode of VT and a
shock from my ICD have finally persuaded to give up the sport.
I have so many people to thank for saving my
life and I recognize the fact that I am a lucky, lucky guy. Not everybody
can be playing with 14 other medical students when this happens to them,
and even when medical attention is close at hand the outcome is often much
worse. I saw the effect that nearly dying had on my friends and family - I
can’t imagine how people can get through losing a loved one in such a way.
This is why I think CRY’s role in counselling the families of the bereaved
and also in implementing a national screening programme to try and prevent
SADS is invaluable.
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ICD
and Surgery Support Group. To contact anyone in the CRY SS Club please
contact the CRY office