Saturday 29th September 2012, the day that changed our lives as we knew it. My partner Simon burst through the front door returning from a morning of fishing on the River Wye. He complained of feeling very ill and within a minute dropped to the floor clutching his chest in pain. All the signs pointed to a heart attack but my sensible side thought 'don't be ridiculous, he's only 41, fit as a fiddle and hasn't had a days illness in all his life'!
I did call an ambulance, all the while wondering if I was being a drama queen! Paramedics arrived and quickly took an ECG and blood pressure reading which were normal. My relief was enormous! He was taken to hospital anyway, to investigate the cause of his pain.
Within minutes of his arrival at the hospital emergency department, with me standing at the bottom of his bed, my strong, handsome, vibrant partner suffered a cardiac arrest. The next 30 minutes took on an unpleasant surreal feeling.
I could see through the gap in the curtain as the resuscitation team attempted to restart his heart. His legs flying into the air with each jolt of the defibrillator, making me feel like I would vomit. A nurse came to take me to a quiet room, where I sat and mumbled to her over and over 'but he's only 41'.
Minutes later, a doctor came to inform me that they were still trying to restart Simon's heart and advised me to call family. The call I made to our 16 year old son, Tyler, tore my heart in two.
In my head, I prayed to every god I could think of and even offered my soul to the devil if they would just let him live.
Eventually, a doctor came to tell me that they had found a faint pulse. It had taken 25 minutes to resuscitate him. His cardiac arrest was caused by a heart attack. He was being taken to theatre to have his blocked artery stented, then on to the Intensive Care Unit.
An hour later we were taken to ICU. I was told he was still a very ill man and that the next 48 hours were critical in terms of his heart. As the doctor was speaking to me, I had every belief that Simon would pull through, the worst outcome wasn't an option in my head! But there was more bad news to come........the doctor began talking about the 25 minutes it had taken to resuscitate Simon and how this could have starved his brain of oxygen.
Can someone give me hope?
Today I'm having a better day!
Living with an angry, critical stranger
What rights & options do we have?
Any stories out there to give us hope?
