A heart attack victim who was medically dead for 68 minutes ‘came back to life’ after his wife urged doctors to try and revive him one last time.
Chris Hickey was unresponsive after almost an hour of resuscitation, forcing a medic to tell his wife Sue that nothing more could be done for her husband of 38 years.
But Sue urged the doctor to try one more time to save Chris’ life – and amazingly his heart started again ten minutes later.
Even then, Sue was warned that his life still hung in the balance as he was moved from the bedroom of their home in Cheltenham, into a waiting air ambulance.
Chris Hickey is pictured outside Cheltenham General Hospital, where he was flown in an air ambulance after being resuscitated inside his bedroom at home
But he clung to life long enough for the ambulance to fly him to Bristol Royal Infirmary – where he was put into an induced coma for three days.
Sue was once again warned that he might not recover and close family members were told to get to the hospital to potentially say their last goodbyes.
But Chris managed to pull through once again, albeit with six-day memory loss as a result of being starved of oxygen for so long.
Now, four months on, Chris is back to normal and living life to the full.
And he wants everyone to know what to do when someone has a cardiac arrest – as his life was saved by his wife performing CPR in the minutes after his heart stopped.
‘I should be dead, there’s no question about it,’ he said. ‘There’s no medical reason why I should be here.’
Chris suffered what is known as ‘sudden adult death’ – which happens to 30,000 people a year in the UK. Only eight per cent survive.
It happened to the footballer Fabrice Muamba in 2012 and to the musician Tom Petty – who sadly died this month.
Chris Hickey was unresponsive after almost an hour of resuscitation, forcing a medic to tell his wife Sue that nothing more could be done for her husband of 38 years
Sue had never done CPR before but was talked through the procedure by the 999 call handler – and that is why Chris is still here today.
Now, Chris wants everyone to know that if someone has a cardiac arrest they should call 999 straight away to be talked through the CPR process.
‘People really need to know about CPR,’ Chris said.
‘Someone will fall over in Cheltenham High Street at some point this year – they will have had a sudden cardiac arrest. By the time the ambulance turns up it will already be too late.
‘We need to get this message out there there that at every workplace it needs to be something everyone is aware of.
‘When you dial 999 the paramedics will tell you what to do. Don’t be dissuaded from doing it because you don’t know how – 999 operators will how how to talk people through it.’