A Guide to the Chain of Survival: Part 4

You’ve done all you can:
the experts will take it from here.

OK, so this is where it gets personal.

It can take many shocks from a defibrillator for the heart to start again. In my case, it took two. The medics call it ‘return of spontaneous circulation’.

This is a huge step forward, but the patient isn’t out of the woods yet. They may still need help with breathing, and until doctors can work out why the heart stopped, it could happen again at any moment.

Your job as a first-aider is done now – the paramedics or emergency doctors need to get the patient stable and transfer him or her to a specialist centre, to diagnose and treat whatever has gone wrong.

I spent thirty-six hours in a medically induced coma. A gadget was implanted into my body to shock my heart automatically, so I don’t have to depend on a lifesaver being in the right place at the right time again. I was so lucky that someone knew what they were doing.

But I didn’t see myself as lucky straight away. Recovery isn’t simple. My brain didn’t work the same way and my body definitely didn’t. It’s taken years of support and patience to feel like myself again. Even now, I’m not quite the same Joel as I was before.

What many people don’t realize is that everyone involved can also be deeply affected. Resuscitation is shocking in so many ways.

4. Get the patient access to the medics, nurses, physios and others who will continue treatment in the hospital, and beyond.

But without lifesavers like you, it couldn’t happen at all. I said in my first video that ordinary people make the difference – but I was saved by an extraordinary person. I will never, ever stop being grateful to her or forget that it didn’t just change my history. It changed hers too. I was ‘down’ for eighteen minutes. Those must have seemed like eighteen lifetimes to her, yet she kept going.

So – eighteen years too late – I want to say thank you, from the bottom of my misbehaving heart.