Case Study: Susan - "CPR training helped save my husband’s life"

In May 2022, in Kings Cross, London, 24 hours before a flight to Italy, Susan’s husband, John, had a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. On that fateful day, both Susan and her daughter, Kendall were at home. They heard a strange breathing noise coming from downstairs - a cross between a snore and a gurgle. That noise, Susan has since learnt, is called Agonal breathing – a brain stem reflex when the body is not getting enough oxygen and the person is near death.

Susan and Kendall raced downstairs and found John unconscious, with no pulse and rapidly losing colour. Kendall quicky called 999 and Susan started CPR. It took Kendall what felt like an age to get through to the operator, but she was soon speaking to the call handler who advised an ambulance was on its way.

As the ambulance arrived, Susan was getting ready to switch with Kendall on doing the chest compressions. The paramedics had to shock John four times with the defibrillator before he regained consciousness.

Susan continued: “Eventually, after the fourth shock, the paramedics told us he was breathing on his own. It was surreal.”

Once John was conscious and stable, the paramedics took him to the local hospital. Susan and Kendall were each driven separately by two of the emergency medical team. They arrived in an Emergency Department waiting room, filled to capacity.

They waited for about 7 hours to see John, until they were called in. Susan said: “It was a relief to see John awake and talking. However, the relief quickly turned to fear as John was repeating the same questions over and over, every few minutes. “So how did this start, which hospital are we at?” I have since learned it’s very common for Sudden Cardiac Arrest survivors to lose a bit of short-term memory around the event, but at the time it was quite frightening.”

John was eventually admitted overnight, then transferred to another hospital – a centre of clinical excellence for cardiac care - where he stayed another eight days. After lots of diagnostics, John was declared a candidate for an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), which is an internal defibrillator. He received the implant on May 20 and was discharged that evening.

Since then, he’s been making steady progress on the road to recovery. Susan said: “I am sharing this very personal experience for a couple of reasons. First, telling the story is one way to try and process what happened. Secondly, this is your sign to get CPR training and defibrillation awareness.

“Only 10% of people who suffer an out of hospital cardiac arrest survive. The more of us that get trained, the higher the chance that someone having a cardiac arrest will survive, this could be your friend or loved one.

“We were of course incredibly lucky, but had Kendall and I not been trained to respond to the ultimate medical emergency, John may not be with us today.”

John and Susan connected with other sudden cardiac arrest survivors through the charity, Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK, and heard stories of people who have experienced a host of life-altering issues following their cardiac arrest, including emotional, psychological and physical impacts.

John commented: “ I am truly grateful that I am here today and didn’t suffer any life-altering complications. I survived thanks to the swift response of my wife, who was trained in CPR and recognised the situation. She had my daughter call emergency services and delivered CPR until paramedics arrived, who shocked my heart back into regular rhythm.

“Out-of-hospital survival rates are only one in ten. To increase survival rates, rapid response is critical. CPR training is simple and can take as little as ten minutes on-line. Find training that suits you and do it. Know where your nearest defibrillator is to your home, workplace, gym, club, or favourite restaurant. That knowledge can save a life.”