- Runner’s life was saved by her boyfriend after her heart stopped while watching TV
- Sam Horsfall suffers from ventricular tachycardia – same condition as footballer Fabrice Muamba
- Miss Horsfall was training for the 156-mile Marathon des Sables
- Should everyone be taught CPR? Take part in our poll below
A RUNNER whose heart suddenly stopped beating says she owes her life to her boyfriend, who gave her CPR.
Sam Horsfall, who has the same life-threatening condition which caused the heart of former professional footballer Fabrice Muamba heart to stop for 78 minutes, says she wants to raise awareness about the condition and the importance of learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The airport firefighter from St Brelade, who was having a day off from her training for the Marathon des Sables – a 156-mile race through the Sahara – was watching TV when boyfriend James Harrison noticed something was wrong.
‘She said: “I feel really dizzy”,’ Mr Harrison, a 42-year-old Airport firefighter said. ‘She started to really struggle to breathe. In that split second I thought she was messing around.
‘Her breathing got really laboured. I was asking her what was wrong.
‘She started to slump to the floor. It was quite frightening. I phoned 999 and put it on speaker phone. I laid her on the floor. They came on the line. I asked for the ambulance.
‘In that time her breathing got worse. She stopped breathing.
‘She struggled for her last breath. All the air came out of her. I felt for a pulse. There was no pulse. I opened her eyes.
‘There was no change in her pupils.
‘The ambulance came on the line. I told them she had stopped breathing. They said “Start CPR”.
‘I started CPR and then all of a sudden she took a massive breath and just jumped up.’
Miss Horsfall said when she regained consciousness she did not realise the severity of her condition, even when paramedics arrived at the house.
‘James still had the ambulance on speakerphone,’ Miss Horsfall said. ‘He said: “You stopped breathing”. I said: “Don’t be ridiculous”.
‘It took a bit of coaxing to get me to the hospital. I’ve never been ill before. I was in A&E for four hours. They did so many tests. I felt so dizzy and sick and really, really tired.’
Medics decided to keep Miss Horsfall in overnight to monitor her heart.
‘I remembered lying there thinking I must get some sleep, then all of a sudden the dizziness came back,’ Miss Horsfall said. ‘I could feel my heart pounding like never before. Really hard and really fast. It lasted 30 seconds.
‘In the morning the doctor said the heart monitor had shown that my heart had pumped over 300 beats a minute. My resting heartbeat is usually 35 beats.’
Following her life-threatening ordeal on 6 February, Miss Horsfall was transferred to the high-dependency unit before being transferred by air ambulance to the John Radcliffe Heart Centre in Oxford, where she was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, a condition that arises from improper electrical activity of the heart presenting as a rapid heart rhythm.
She underwent an operation to have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted which delivers an electric shock to restore a normal heartbeat if her heart begins to beat irregularly.
Despite having to pull out of the Marathon des Sables, ten days after the device was fitted Miss Horsfall was able to start running again. She now hopes to take part in the Mont Saint-Michel marathon on 31 May and an Ironman competition in Barcelona in October.
And she said it was because of her boyfriend’s work-related training in CPR that she was alive today.
Miss Horsfall said: ‘It just highlights the importance of CPR. It’s something everyone should learn.’
LIFE-SAVING defibrillators will be installed in two new locations as part of the Islandwide ‘Liberate our Defibrillators’ scheme.
The Ports of Jersey have now signed up to the project, which is being run by the Health Department, the Ambulance service and St John Ambulance.
Jersey Airport has recently relocated its defibrillator outside the main departures terminal and plans are in place for a similar move at St Helier Harbour’s Elizabeth Terminal, as well as the Marine Leisure Centre on the New North Quay.
Alan Bertram, green watch manager for Jersey Airport Fire and Rescue Service, who has been leading the initiative for the ports, said: ‘After a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces someone’s survival by ten per cent.
‘We hope that by improving public access to our defibrillators, which are simple and safe enough to use without prior training, it will help save lives.’
The defibrillators are placed in secured cabinets and those who need to use it will be given a code to access the equipment, after they have called 999.
