Referee suffered cardiac arrest during football match in Mansfield

Referee suffered cardiac arrest during football match in Mansfield

A grandfather has praised the emergency services for saving his life after he suffered a cardiac arrest while officiating a football match in Mansfield. Andrew Jarvis, who was 60 at the time, collapsed at Rainworth Miners Welfare FC's home ground where he was assistant referee for a game against Hallam FC.

Mr Jarvis, a retired teacher, had collapsed when his heart stopped beating, and he was quickly given CPR. The football club's defibrillator was then used to restart his heart and land paramedics at the scene helped stabilise and prepare him for the arrival of the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA).

To give his heart the best chance of recovering and to improve his oxygen levels the DLRAA critical care crew anaesthetised and intubated Mr Jarvis to stabilise him for an air transfer to hospital. He urgently required cardiac surgery and it would have taken a land ambulance 45 minutes to get him to hospital.

Within just 13 minutes the air ambulance had landed at the Royal Derby Hospital. He was treated by cardiac specialists who fitted a stent to widen a blocked artery and three days later he was well enough to go home.

“I’m told it was touch and go for a while," he says. "My condition was critical, and I could have been brain damaged but luckily, I am alive and OK. I am so thankful to everyone who helped me. I got quality treatment from highly skilled people at the scene and then I was transferred straight to where I needed to be for a lifesaving procedure."

Since the incident in August last year Mr Jarvis, from Worksop, has joined forces with physiotherapist Shannon Brooks who called the emergency services and gave him CPR. This was to raise enough money to provide three defibrillators at non-league football grounds.

He also wants to promote the work of the local air ambulance and the part they played in his survival by sharing his story. "I knew that the air ambulance is a charity, but I didn’t realise that it relies totally on donations and fundraising to keep operational," he added.

"I thought there was some state support. This is why I want to use my story to help raise awareness of and funds for the lifesaving work they do every day of the year."

He is now hoping to become a volunteer speaker for the charity now he is feeling better. "I was in the right place at the right time which meant that the chain of survival worked for me," he said.

"The emergency services were called quickly, I was given good quality CPR, a defibrillator was available and was used effectively on me, and then I got the critical care at the scene with a rapid transfer to hospital. I am incredibly lucky to be alive and I cannot thank everyone involved enough."