A teenager who died and
miraculously came
back to life again is trying to help others come to terms with life-saving
operations.
Bradley Farrow, 16, from Shearwater suffers
from Brugada Syndrome, which causes his heart to race and move into
cardiac arrest.
In October last year Bradley collapsed and
his heart went into cardiac arrest. However, the impact of hitting
the floor was enough to trigger his heart back into action.
Bradley underwent an operation to insert a
defibrillator to prevent his heart from going into any further cardiac
arrests and a pacemaker to keep his heart rate at normal levels.
The brave teenager now wants to raise
awareness of the organisation CRY – cardiac Risk in the Young.
At the end of September this year, CRY
launched a club for young people who have had, or are about to have,
potentially life-saving surgery and want to talk to others who have been
through a similar experience.
Bradley explained: "Six of us – the
founder members of what is to be called the CRY SS Club ( CRY Surgery
Supporters Club) – met in the CRY office to talk about our experiences.
"We met Dr Elijah Behr, a specialist
registrar in cardiology at St George's Hospital Medical School. It
was very relaxed and we asked questions on issues that we wouldn't
normally ask our cardiologists.
"It was good to talk to others who
have been through similar experiences as myself.
We all agreed that there needs to be more
done to raise awareness about Sudden Death Syndromes and more support for
young people and families affected by them.
I wish I could have talked to someone
before I had my implantation.
You have so many things you want to ask but
you don't want to ask your parents as they are as uptight about it as you,
and you don't want to ask the doctors as they may think that you are
being silly.
"This club should help solve these
problems, because it's young people talking to other young people."
