We're from Yeovil in Somerset it's me my parents and my brother who's
at uni and i got to school still just finished my GCSE's
it was a Monday morning woke up as normal just to get ready for school
my Dad was talking to my Mum
I spoke to Manny and I didn't get any response and she was in bed at the time
I reached down to touch her and her arm was actually cold to the touch
in which was quite a shock, no response
my immediate thoughts were obviously numbness
but I reached for the phone and dial 999 spoke to the operator
told him that I thought my wife had died in the night
and said he then immediately dispatched an ambulance
it was right about this time that Samantha came into the room she heard the
commotion
obviously there was panic to start with
luckily I was able to start CPR
I start started of with the chest compressions and then I did that for
30 chest compressions and then I did to rescue breaths then
kept going for that about five minutes and then I tired so I showed my Dad what to do
and he took over
the paramedics took about six minutes to come so at this time you my dad were
carrying on the CPR, so my Dad was doing CPR whilst I was on the phone
when they arrived they were very positive that the fact that because we
started CPR so early that
there might be a chance say they carried on the CPR and we were luckily
able to use a defibrillator and when they use that one shot was lucky enough
to bring her back
basicly they think I was not breathing 15 to 20 minutes
long time so I was very lucky
we're really proud of her she's very cleaver girl
and she knew what to do and got along with it, Sam and her brother had both
been to the oval Life Saving Club
and what used to be on a Friday evening for an hour and
though its was primarily used as a swimming club but it was swimming life-saving so
one other things that they were taught was CPR, I think it's one of those things
just don't think you're ever gonna use though in real life
and so we've never really thought about us being trained or anyone else being trained
we thought that she enjoyed
going on to swing club and having a good time but we didn't really look at it
as a is a skill that she was gonna need in real life, you know at the end of the
day on your own mother it must be
really frightened to think you're doing this and she just
got on with it bless her. It was over a period of probably two to three weeks she
sort of very slowly
recovered, gradually came at the coma that she been induced into
and eventually we got her back and we got the old Mandy
and and she's made a remarkable recovery since then
It's important to have a go because no matter what you can't do any more damage
and even if you can't do the rescue breaths you can do hands-only CPR
I'd seen the Vinnie Jones video that the British Heart Foundation produce so that
helps certainly
just hard and fast potentially make a big difference between somebody
living or not living in that sort of event. It does feel very much like a dream really
i'm looking back now at the actual
incident it did doesn't seem quite real, you know it's almost like you happen to
somebody else
something like that happening it does make you reassess life just doing simple things
just going out for a nice walk on a Sunday afternoon is something that
you appreciate more I think having been through something like that
before the event
I was quite shy I wouldn't speak up in front of people
just a quiet girl, but afterwards I campaigned, so I've spoken in front of MP's in
front of
workers in just known people and its
made me want to fight for something to get CPR in schools
and defibrillators in public places
you don't think about it too much but every time we see her know you know
all thing happens we reflect on it and we just feel proud and
last year when it was one year we went for a meal just to celebrate the fact
that she was still here
the new
of