Jenny West, from Tuckton, and her family saved John’s life by taking turns to perform CPR on while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
His heart stopped beating for 12 minutes in total before paramedics were about to resuscitate him with the help of a defibrillator.
John’s life was saved thanks to the family’s CPR knowledge before paramedics arrived (Image: Jenny West)
“When we were at the hospital they told us that less than one in 10 survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest,” said Jenny.
Unlike a heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest happens when the heart’s electrical system fails, triggering a lethal rhythm so the heart effectively stops pumping blood, causing the person to collapse, lose their pulse and stop breathing normally, and without immediate help they will die within minutes.
Fortunately, the family had two years earlier undertaken an online British Heart Foundation CPR training course which enabled them to provide temporary lifesaving support to John.
Jenny said the ‘alternative is unimaginable’ if she had lost her father (Image: Jenny West)
“It’s hard to describe it,” Jenny said of the experience of giving her father CPR.
“It was, in hindsight, a really traumatic event. In the moment, your adrenaline kicks in.
“We were incredibly lucky that as a family we had actually done a first aid course together a couple of years before.”
The family are now hoping to install a community defibrillator in Tuckton as Jenny said she did not believe there were enough that we accessible 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
They need to £2,000 but have already raised more half that amount, collecting nearly £1,000 within the first 24 hours of creating their GoFundMe page.
“We really wanted to do something as a family to turn that experience into something positive and look at how we could increase the number of public defibrillators that are available to people that can be accessed at any point,” said Jenny.
Once the money has been raised, the defibrillator will be held in Tuckton Tea Gardens, while Ben at Ernest Clinton Electrical will install it.
“It’s been really lovely,” Jenny said of the reaction so far.
“It’s amazing to see how many people have got involved in donating and so many people have contacted up to say they’ve had a close family member that also experienced cardiac arrest, and sadly, most of those people hadn’t survived.”
She added: “The alternative is unimaginable for us.
“Since then my dad has had another grandson that he’s met and the time he gets with his grandchildren is just amazing.”
More information about the Tuckton Tea Gardens Community Defibrillator can be found on the GoFundMe website.