On 22nd November 2013, I suffered a sudden cardiac arrest whilst video-calling my mother.

On 22nd November 2013, I suffered a sudden cardiac arrest whilst video-calling my mother. 

I was sat on the sofa with my wife, watching some Friday night television and video-calling my mother when I suddenly collapsed and went into a VF arrest.It had been a normal day; I had done a full day at work, picked my two young daughters up from school and cooked dinner. Once the girls were finally off to sleep, I took our dog for a quick run and returned home for a shower before joining my wife on the sofa. We had the television on in the background and we were just calling my Mum for a catch up, as she still lives quite far away from us. I could never have predicted what happened next: suddenly, I was unconscious and suffering from a sudden cardiac arrest. Luckily for me, my wife is a trained nurse and immediately realized what was happening. She rang for an ambulance and begun CPR on me straight away. When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics took over and shocked me with a defibrillator in order to restart my heart. I got back into a normal rhythm and I was whisked off to hospital. I spent the next seven weeks going between Grimsby and Sheffield hospitals, where I suffered a further three cardiac arrests and I underwent several tests in order to determine the root of problem. I was eventually fitted with an S-ICD system which will instantly shock my heart back into a normal rhythm if I suffer a cardiac arrest again. It has now been over a year since my last cardiac arrest and I am now able to live every day as normal, without worrying. If anything does go wrong, I now have my own little on-board paramedic in my chest! Getting this device fitted is the best choice I ever made; it took a few months for me to adapt to it, but nowadays I don’t even notice that it’s there – it just sits in the background waiting to help me if I need it.

I am thrilled to be able to get on with my life as normal and enjoy spending time with my wife and our daughters. My body is achieving amazing results which I never thought would be possible when I was undergoing tests in hospital, all because of the knowledge that I am safe in the hands of my S-ICD system. Recently, I have even started running again!