(Thanks to Siobhan at Market Harborough Town FC, Leicestershire for sharing her personal account from this summer when a young person's heart stopped whilst playing football and the emergency actions taken by bystanders which helped to save his life).

Monday 16^th May 2022 a date etched in my memory, never to be forgotten….

It was the day I resigned from the bank, to make a change in my life to be happier. I'd decided to swap my corporate career for running Harborough Town 3 days a week, a club I had become very passionate about supporting..

Just after 9.30 pm Maz, Ivor & I were chatting in Maz's room when a young lad came charging into the club house shouting 'help, my friend is having a seizure on the pitch'

Maz leapt up and grabbed a first aid kit asking Ivor to bring the defib, which he grabbed and ran off towards the pitch, I grabbed a blanket from the front office, locked the club house door and made my way over to the pitch.

As I approached the huddle of people on the floor around the player (E) I looked at his face – the horror which I saw - his face was grey, his lips were black, and it was obvious that he wasn't breathing. His friend (T) was speaking on the phone to the ambulance service, while Maz was checking for breaths, and a pulse, Ivor was kneeling on the floor with the defib pack. The players friends stood around crying, in shock. I sank to the floor and unpacked the defib passing it back to Ivor, T was now giving CPR as instructed by the ambulance team. When we could we pushed up his shirt, and attached the pads ready, the defib was talking to us as we did as it said.

T continued with CPR, then the defib instructed us to prepare to shock E, T took his hands away, and thud the shock was given, T & Maz checked for a pulse and breaths, E was exhaling only, and looking worse by the minute, time was ticking by, I remember thinking he's been down too long, it must be 5 or 10 minutes and he was down before we got outside, T continued with CPR, and the defib told us to shock again, so T moved back and thud the shock was given again…. Still nothing, OMG I thought he's going to die, this is taking too long, where is the ambulance, I can't handle this… if you're not actually delivering CPR, and just watching it's like I can't do anything to help, what shall I do, please god let him start breathing…

I looked up as i saw 3 or people running towards the pitch, it was the RAF guys, they have a hut near the club, they had equipment, the emergency access gate was open, and they ran onto the pitch. 'we are first response trained we will take over' they stepped straight in, took over CPR from T and bagged the player, giving him urgently needed air, we stepped back and watched as they attached their own defib, I think they shocked him twice, and on the second time Patrick said we've got him back….

Thank god, they continued to work on him, we started to look around at his friends, some had gone to the end of the road to guide the ambulance in, and some where still stood around crying. We gave them a hug and told T that he had probably saved E's life as he had acted so quickly and kept the oxygen going around his body by performing CPR. It was past 10 pm by this time, I turned around, and E's Dad had arrived, I know him I thought OMG, he looked dazed, but was really calm, he started to talk to his son calmly and E started to moan, and writhe around a little…

We suddenly thought OMG the floodlights are on automatic they might go off at 10.30pm so Maz and I checked we thought we had until 10.30pm..

Just then the ambulance and the doctors car arrived, sped up to the pitch entrance, and leapt out of the vehicles, there were loads of them, they took the stretcher trolley onto the pitch, and then took over from the RAF guys.

We gathered E's friends together and brought them into the club house, gave them mars bars, and water as they were all in shock. We got them to call their parents to ask them to come over to drive them home as we didn't feel they were able to drive home themselves…

The ambulance team and doctors got E into the ambulance, they must have worked on him for 45 minutes before driving off to Kettering hospital, this concerned me as I worried that something had happened again, Helen the RAF lady explained that they won't move the patient until they are stable enough, but this still worried me as it had taken so long to stabilise him.

The boy's parents started to arrive, it was now after 11pm…we explained what had happened, and said to keep us informed and let us know if anyone needed anything…

I got home just before midnight, still in shock, I had messaged my daughter earlier simply saying cardiac arrest at the club will be late… she heard me come in, so I went into her room and lay down on her bed, I cried, she gave me a hug and I told her briefly what had happened.

I didn't sleep that night, it was playing on my mind, flash backs, what if's, it was awful….

Tuesday morning I arrived at the club, Maz was here.. we were sad, we hugged each other, and cried a bit more. We tried to work, but I couldn't think about anything else.. the boys cars were still in the car park from the night before.. about 11am E's dad called in to collect his E's bag and car, he looked terrible, he had been up all night at the hospital… he had tears in his eyes, and said E was non responsive, the doctors had said, E will either wake up, not wake up, or may have brain damage due to the loss of oxygen, the only thing they could do was wait…

We couldn't think about anything else…come on E you can do it, kept playing through my mind… Grace the physio arrived at lunch time, she said let's sit down and you can tell me what happened.. I talked through it all and cried, but it was what I needed to do, to get it all out and have a cry…

That evening my parents had come over, they made the tea for my kids, I just lay on the sofa, I couldn't talk, I just lay there thinking about E, come on E you can do it, over and over in my mind, please god let him be ok, please…

Another restless night…and I had to go into Northampton… i drove over and was just dropping a package off at next when the phone rang, it was Maz she was shouting, he's tried to wake up in the night, so they are going to try and wake him this morning…. OMG that's amazing, from non-responsive to trying to wake up, amazing, just amazing, half an hour later another call… he awake and sitting up in bed !!! What, I can't believe it, really, that's absolutely amazing, OMG I'm so pleased, relieved, thank you god, thank you.

Later we heard more details, E was a bit weird when he woke up, laughing like a child, and saying stuff about not going into school, his Dad said he thought he may have brain damage, but the doctor told him this was common when waking from a coma, and within a few hours E was back to normal, no brain damage nothing… how amazing, he was ok…

I'd already booked a heart screening through CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) for August, and it felt even more important now, after seeing and experiencing a cardiac arrest with E, I really don't ever want to see this again, but I know with over a 1000 users a week its highly probably that it will happen again. I told the story to the parents at the end of season awards, the story helped me get the importance of heart screening over to our members, and when the screening was released we filled the places in 2 hours.

We already arrange training for all of our coaches, and staff every year through the Joe Humphries Trust, its free, why wouldn't you do it. It's so easy to forget how to do it, and what you need to do, and believe me when you're in it your mind is scrambled….I felt helpless watching T do CPR etc, but I was ready to take over if needed, and I hope that if he wasn't already doing it then I would have been able to step in and click into action, CPR and Defib training is a life skill, and while I hope to god I never need to do it again, at least ill know what to do…

Siobhan

It's ALL in the PREPARATION!

Play Sport Play HEART- SAFE - SCA happen to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime and any AGE - Recognising any warning signs and acting promptly with more people, including players, coaches, officials trained in basic CPR skills and being familiar with and having quick access to a defibrillator ACROSS ALL LEVELS OF UK SPORT can mean the difference between life and death.

Don't be caught out!

To find out more on how Joe's Trust ( JHMT) can help your club/ organisation to create a heart safe sporting and community environment go to https://www.jhmt.org.uk/impact

"Wherever sport is played, a defibrillator should be on site and readily accessible. When every second counts, it could be the difference between life and death. Immediate CPR is crucial whilst the defibrillator is brought to the patient and it's also vital that as many people as possible have CPR skills, including players, officials and spectators as they may be the closest to where someone has collapsed." – Charles Poole – JHMT

#everysecondcounts #CPR #AED #lifematters #SKILLSFORLIFE #safercommunities #Leicester #Leicestershire