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RICKY WILSON / Stuff
In January, John Abbott made his way to an emergency clinic, only to suffer cardiac arrest in the waiting room. Paramedics had to shake his heart up to 50 times.
Nine months after his heart shook up to 50 times, John Abbott still doesn’t like the sound of ambulance sirens.
On January 8, the Auckland man woke up feeling “not very well.”
He made coffee, took a shower and, “without wanting to disturb anyone,” went to a local emergency clinic in Cruz Blanca. He didn’t know he was having the deadliest form of heart attack.
While in the waiting room, Abbott, an otherwise healthy 59-year-old man, suffered cardiac arrest, the first of many that morning.
The One Tree Hill resident was suffering from an ST elevation myocardial infarction, where one of the heart’s main arteries, which supplies oxygen and blood to the heart, is blocked.
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It made her heart stop.
“If I left him 3-4 more minutes, he would be dead on the floor at home,” he said.
RICKY WILSON / Stuff
Abbott was wearing his favorite shirt the day he had a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest. His shirt had to be cut off and he has hung it up as a reminder of the fight to save his life.
Fortunately, St John Ambulance paramedics were on the scene and took him from the emergency clinic to Auckland City Hospital.
Heart attack and cardiac arrest are different: Heart attack occurs when an artery becomes blocked, preventing blood flow to part of the heart. People remain conscious and breathing.
Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops pumping blood, breathing stops, and the person loses consciousness.
Unless CPR or the use of a defibrillator (AED) is done quickly, survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are very low.
With every minute without CPR or defibrillation, a person’s chances of survival are reduced by 10-15%.
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
Paramedics had already placed a defibrillator on Abbott prior to his arrest, meaning he received his first shock almost immediately. But her heart kept stopping.
On average, only 13 percent survive.
After nine weeks in the hospital, Abbott was finally discharged and went home the day before his 60th birthday.
Recovery has been “slow,” but the auctioneer is now back at work full time.
“St John was absolutely crucial [in my survival], No doubt.”
Mark Deoki, St. John’s Territory Administrator and critical care paramedic, remembers that day clearly.
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Mark Deoki and John Abbott, intensive care paramedic.
Abbott suffered cardiac arrest for the first time shortly after paramedics arrived, around 8.15 a.m.
The crew delivered the first shock in a matter of seconds, causing his heart to jump again almost immediately.
“With most people, that’s often where it stays … but John’s heart decided to play.”
He arrested “over and over and over again,” Deoki said.
By the time Abbott arrived at the hospital, he had been in intermittent cardiac arrest for about 45 minutes, with paramedics doing CPR at all times.
His heart stopped six more times in the hospital elevator and several times while doctors worked to relieve the heart attack, Deoki said.
St John used three different defibrillators while treating Abbott, and reports show that he received an electric shock 23 times.
Deoki said Abbott likely received up to 50 shocks from St John.
“If we didn’t have a defibrillator and a good CPR, he would have died.”
That Abbott survived and recovered as well as he had is “quite unusual,” Deoki said.
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Nine months later, John Abbott met with the paramedics who saved his life. Center: Abbott and his son, Simon.
“He was very lucky.”
This month we celebrate Restart a Heart Day, an annual initiative to raise awareness about the importance of CPR and defibrillators.
St. John responds to about 2,000 cardiac arrests each year, with up to a quarter not receiving CPR before staff arrive.
Deoki said survival rates to cardiac arrest could “vastly improve” with greater knowledge of CPR and better knowledge of and access to community AEDs.
“If we could push [the number of people given CPR] 100 percent would make a big difference … it could mean there are more Johns around. “
