Student's heart restarted by paramedics - Stoney Cove, UK

[DandyDon]

Diver whose heart stopped during training is saved

A diver resuscitated by helicopter paramedics after a virus stopped her heart has urged more people to support the air ambulance.

Jane Gaskell was surfacing after a 12-metre dive at Stoney Cove near Hinckley when a virus attacked her heart.

She was pulled from the water and fellow divers and Stoney Cove staff started to give her CPR.

Paramedics and the air ambulance crew arrived and the CPR continued for 23 minutes to get her heart beating properly again, with a defibrillator being used seven times in total.

Jane, 52, who grew up in Birstall and is in the BBC Concert Orchestra, had decided to have a go at learning to dive and was on the second day of her dive training when she nearly died.

She spent four days unconscious in the intensive care unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary and was not discharged until three weeks later to return to her home near Buckingham.

Her greatest happiness, she said, was being alive to meet her new nephew, Oliver, who was born shortly after the incident at Stoney Cove in 2016.

She said: “It’s a miracle that I survived.

"To have technically died and lived to tell the tale and return to work is incredibly lucky. It’s made me appreciate life more and live for the day.

“My colleagues, family and friends are exceptionally grateful to The Air Ambulance Service and all their hard work in caring for me and not giving up hope in trying to restart my heart.

"I really appreciate everything the fantastic crew did for me.”

Jane, whose father, David, is a Charnwood councillor and former mayor, is among the patients of the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) taking part in publicity to mark the charity’s 10 anniversary this month.

The air ambulance, like others around the country, relies solely on public donations and receives no government funding.

(continued at headline link above)

 

[Jack Hammer]

Great to see positive news with a happy outcome. It looks to be an incident from 2016.

 

[tursiops]

A virus attacked her heart? What is that?

 

[DandyDon]

A virus attacked her heart? What is that?

Google gives several hits. This is the top one: Viral Myocarditis: How a Virus Can Affect Your Heart

It looks to be an incident from 2016.

Yeah, I guess so. I knew it had been some time as she was hospitalized for weeks, but I read over that.

 

[uncfnp]

The only scenario I can think of is the diver had cardiomyopathy from a viral infection at some point in the past. She may or may not have been aware of it. Individuals with cardiomyopathy are at risk for CHF and arrhythmias. Something about the activity must have triggered one, probably an arrhythmia, that required CPR/defibrillation.