Jed and Sian ran on ahead but
my legs just wouldn’t work properly and our friend Dave ended up dragging me
all the way back to the hotel – he just told me that they had pulled Adam
out of the water and he was unconscious. I got to the hotel and saw my
friend Angela crying – I knew then that it must be bad. I could hear
an ambulance siren in the background and was told that Adam had been taken
to hospital.
We were told that Adam and 3
of the boys who were with us on holiday had decided to have a game of
volleyball in the pool. Adam had got out after a while saying he felt
unwell and had gone to sit at the side of the pool. He then just collapsed
into the water.
At the hospital, Jed was
waiting in the corridor and told me that Adam had been taken to theatre.
One of the holidaymakers that had tried to help Adam was, apparently, a
paramedic and had given CPR to Adam by the side of the pool – she was at the
hospital and came over to talk to me and said that she couldn’t get his
heart started – I just couldn’t understand why she was telling me that his
heart had stopped!
Eventually we were called
into a side room to be told that Adam was dead on arrival. We were told
that Adam would have to have a post-mortem in Cyprus and that it may take 10
days so we were then faced with the agonising decision of whether to stay
there in a holiday resort surrounded by people having fun on their holidays
or go home and leave Adam in Cyprus. I knew that I couldn’t stay there but
walking up the steps on to the plane knowing that I was leaving Adam behind
was just heart-breaking.
The 3 weeks up to his funeral
were all a bit of a blur – thankfully, our friends were able to organise
everything for us in Cyprus. I’m still not sure to this day how they were
able to organise everything with the insurance company and authorities so
well.
A
second post-mortem had to be carried out once Adam had been returned to the
UK which concluded that Adam had died from a cardiac arrest.
Eventually, at the inquest,
cause of death was “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS)”. I just couldn’t
believe that a fit, healthy 17 year old boy could die so suddenly from a
cardiac arrest. I remembered that Adam had told me he had fainted at home
about 4 months before he died and I began to wonder whether this was
significant.
We were put in touch with CRY
and sadly, realised that this was not so rare – at the time, CRY’s estimate
was that 8 young people die every week in similar circumstances. This has
now been revised to 12 – 12 people who die suddenly with usually no warning
or symptoms.
Our journey is 6 years down
the line now and I still get days when I am overwhelmed by the realisation
of what has happened, but we are committed to working with CRY to raise
awareness and help with their screening programmes. Through the screening
that we have had, I’ve discovered I have Brugada syndrome as does my
daughter Sian and other relatives in my family. This is the most likely
cause of Adam’s death.
I have trained as a
bereavement supporter with CRY so
that, hopefully, I can provide some support to people who have lost loved
ones in the same way; and I am a CRY County Representative for Kent. We
have also set up a memorial fund for Adam within CRY for which we have
regular fundraising events to raise money for screening events in our local
community.
Life is
liveable but shadowed by sadness - we carry on as best we can but my biggest
sadness is the loss that Adam has had – the loss of his future.
Julie Donnelly
