Christopher was 19 years old, my stepson and Karen's only child. He had just
found his first love and had everything to live for.
On Friday
8th June 2007 he was having a kick-about in Kings Park, Swanage with a
couple of mates. He stopped, looked over to Aimee his girlfriend, smiled and
waved, and as they turned away he collapsed with cardiac arrest, falling
onto his back. Unfortunately as he did so, he vomited and inhaled the vomit.
His
friends called for an ambulance and commenced CPR. Being rural Dorset, it
took 10 - 20 minutes for a paramedic to arrive and he, seeing how severe the
situation was, called for a helicopter to get Chris to hospital.
The
Dorset Police helicopter took Chris to Poole general Hospital where he was
taken to the A & E department, where they struggled to stabilize Chris's
vital functions. Chris was eventually transferred to the ICU where we
thought his condition was being brought under control.
On the
evening of Sunday 10th June, my wife Karen and I left Chris with Aimee by
his bedside, to get something to eat. In the time we were away Chris' blood
pressure dropped and Aimee was asked to leave while they stabilized him.
On our
return we were allowed in after around half an hour, and as we sat with
Chris the Consultant came in and checked Chris' pupils with a penlight and
we realised that they remained dilated.
At that point the Consultant
took us to a side room and told us that he believed Chris' brain stem had
died, though he could not be definite until all the support systems were
withdrawn for tests to be made.
