Case Study: Siobhan - "The whole ordeal was traumatic and I couldn’t take in what I was told"

In 2022, aged just 20, Siobhan Wren was studying in the USA when her life suddenly changed. One afternoon, Siobhan was shopping with two friends when she suddenly collapsed on the pavement. 

Having assumed she had fainted, her friends quickly managed to flag down a passing police car. The police officer was able to wake Siobhan, but she quickly lost consciousness again. They soon realised that she was in cardiac arrest. He immediately called for back-up and began CPR. Siobhan’s heart did not restart at the scene, or in the ambulance when she was treated with a defibrillator. More than 35 minutes after her cardiac arrest, her heart eventually restarted in hospital while she was on life support. She was later being fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and discharged after five days. 

Three months later, after returning to England, Siobhan experienced another frightening moment when her ICD delivered a shock after she ran up the stairs too quickly at home. She was taken to London’s Barts Hospital and stayed overnight before being discharged the following morning with a low-dose beta blocker. But Siobhan and her family were given little support or information about what had happened or what might happen next.

Just three days later, Siobhan returned to Manchester to resume university. As she pulled her suitcase from the boot of her Uber, her ICD delivered another shock. 

She was then admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where she remained for a month while doctors worked to find the right combination of medication to prevent further experiences. Every three days, she underwent exercise testing on different medications until doctors found a treatment that suppressed the extra heartbeats. 

Siobhan was eventually diagnosed with idiopathic ventricular tachycardia. But after everything she had experienced, support remained limited. During her hospital stay, she was visited once by a psychologist to discuss her care after leaving hospital. Siobhan found it difficult to take in the information while she was still processing what had happened. 

“The whole ordeal was traumatic, and I just couldn’t take in what I was being told,” she says. There was no further follow-up support, and Siobhan was not given information that she could take home and read in her own time. She says this left her feeling isolated, particularly when it came to helping her family understand what had happened. 

In the years since her cardiac arrests, Siobhan has experienced PTSD and sought therapy independently. Looking back, she believes more support after her cardiac arrest and hospital stays could have helped her and her family manage the emotional impact of what happened. 

“I believe that better mental health support could have reduced my stress and helped me understand and manage the impact of what had happened.” she says. 

Today, Siobhan wants to use her experience to highlight what life can be like after surviving a cardiac arrest, and why recovery does not necessarily end when someone leaves hospital.