'Most of all I will be forever grateful to my wife, who without doubt, saved my life' - Tyrone man whose heart stopped

After 67-year-old-year Frank suffered a heart attack the couple are supporting the British Heart Foundation’s campaign encouraging people to take the BHF’s free online tool RevivR teaches lifesaving CPR skills in 15 minutes, using just a mobile phone or tablet and a cushion.

Sixty-year-old Frank, a seasoned runner and gym-goer, had returned from a 5k run on a Sunday morning in March 2021 and was relaxing at home when his wife Maura, who was in the kitchen, suddenly heard him gasping for breath.

The civil servant from Dungannon said: “That morning after my run, I came back home and felt absolutely normal. My wife Maura and I had lunch and were talking about going for a walk. My wife was tidying up in the kitchen and I went into the living room and sat down. The last thing I remember was sending a text to my son.”

Unknown to Frank and his wife, he had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Maura said: “I was in the kitchen and heard this awful sound from Frank which I now know is called agonal breathing. I raced in to see Frank lying on the sofa and gasping for breath, I started shaking him but there was nothing – his heart had stopped.

“I rang the emergency services straight away and a neighbour came to help me. I was in total shock, but ready to do anything that would help get Frank back.”

Maura was instructed by the emergency services call handler to pull Frank onto the floor, with the help of their neighbour. The call handler talked Maura through CPR, and she recalls performing CPR for around 7 minutes when the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over.

Luckily for Frank the ambulance station in South Tyrone Hospital is very close to where he lives. The paramedics worked on Frank for 40 minutes at home, shocking him twice with a defibrillator. He was then taken to Craigavon Area Hospital where he received a further defibrillator shock and was put into an induced coma.

Frank continued: “Maura and my son Paul were able to see me, however I was unconscious but at least my heart was stabilised. It was a really scary time for my family. At that stage they didn’t know if I would recover or if there would be any internal damage. It was also during Covid which meant my family could not visit during the period I was in hospital, which added to their stress.

“I was brought out of the induced coma a few days later and it was another two days before I fully realised what had happened.

“I remained in the Cardiology Unit in Craigavon Area Hospital for four weeks. After numerous tests I had a stent placed into one of the arteries in my heart and an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) fitted. Thankfully, no lasting damage was detected with my heart and there was no internal damage.”

Frank is now back to his active lifestyle.

He thanks everyone who helped him. “Most of all I will be forever grateful to my wife, who without doubt, saved my life”.