Ian Davies went to the gym like any other day and started his workout on the treadmill like always. Except, this workout wouldn’t be like any other workout Ian had done in his life. Sadly, during this workout, Ian fell victim to Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
With no previous pain or symptoms and no recollection of collapsing, Ian suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). Unlike other cardiac events, SCA’s display no prior symptoms and aspects such as your current health condition, your age, gender and ethnicity do not factor when determining the cause.
Suffering a Cardiac Arrest
As a frequent visitor to the gym, Ian started his workout like any other day. When Ian collapsed, the lady in charge of the gym jumped into action by grabbing a defibrillator and delivering treatment that saved Ian’s life. She had only received training on the defibrillator a few weeks prior.
For most of his life, Ian had suffered from a heart valve murmur which thankfully was detected and monitored on an annual basis, with a visit to the hospital. Ian was told that his heart valve murmur would deteriorate and show symptoms which would lead to the valve being replaced. His annual check-ups were changed to 6-monthly check-ups, but no symptoms displayed themselves.
Ian remembers being on the treadmill and the next memory he has is waking up in hospital from the medically induced coma. Placing Ian into a medically induced coma helped to ensure his recovery went as smoothly as possible. He was brought back around gradually and waking up to his friend, the local vicar, and a bright light initially put the thought of Heaven at the forefront of his mind, but he soon realised he was in the ICU ward.
Meeting the Rescuer
To help reassure her that she had successfully saved his life by putting the training she received into action, Ian arranged to meet up with his rescuer and her employer at a local coffee shop to thank her and explain what an amazing thing she had done. During this meeting, Ian was told that it was the first time they had come across someone who had survived thanks to the defibrillator, humbling Ian even more.
Thanks to Ian’s rescuer’s actions, he could go back to daily life as he has made a full recovery and has decided to pay the actions that helped save his life forward to help raise awareness and potentially save more lives.
Giving Back to a Good Cause
Ian was fitted with a replacement valve for his heart following the event and within a few months he was back on the treadmill! However, suffering this cardiac event has led Ian to give back to a fantastic cause, so much so that he sponsored an AED for a charity organisation, DAWS, that helps to provide gymnasium equipment for disabled people.
The AED Ian chose to sponsor was the Defibtech Lifeline Fully Automatic with a free upgrade to the 7-Year battery option. The organisation is a mobile gymnasium facility for disabled people, meaning that the defibrillator had to be portable and robust, along with all the other equipment. This device goes wherever the mobile gymnasium goes and is ready for use whenever there’s a class.
Ian said: “Hopefully, they’ll never have to use it, but it’s there if it’s needed.”
As a survivor, Ian stated that AEDs should undoubtedly be in more places. They’re becoming more common place in places such as supermarkets and you are seeing them in places you never used to, which is fantastic, but Ian believes, similarly to use here at defibshop, AEDs should be in other public places too as without the gymnasium’s AED, Ian’s outcome could have been very different.
If more defibrillators were readily available in more public places, more people who fall victim to sudden cardiac arrest would survive.
Definitive Treatment for Sudden Cardiac Arrest
The only definitive treatment for a victim of Sudden Cardiac Arrest is effective CPR, performed on a ratio of 30 chest compressions to 2 rescue breaths and defibrillation of the heart from a life-saving AED. Many people believe that when someone suffers an SCA, their heart has stopped completely, whereas really it has entered an irregular rhythm which causes the heart to quiver.
The quivering makes the heart incapable of pumping blood around the body, therefore vital organs are deprived of oxygenated blood. If treatment is administered within 3-5 minutes of the victim collapsing, the victims chance of survival increases from 6% to 7% but for every minute that the treatment is delayed, the survival chance decreases by 10%.
Everyone here at defibshop was thrilled to hear of Ian’s survival. It reminds us why we do what we do is so important. Quite simply, we save lives!
To look at all our defibrillators, visit our page here.