Lynda’s campaign after lucky survival

Lynda’s campaign after lucky survival

15 February 2012 - by JOANNE FLEMING

IF Lynda Donaldson didn’t believe in fate, she does now.

A stroke of extraordinary good luck saw two lifesavers pass her doorstep seconds after she collapsed from a cardiac arrest that would have killed her before an ambulance could arrive.

The incident outside her Main Street Diner business in Saintfield took place in January last year — witnessed first by a nurse who was driving by, and secondly by a trained user of heart defibrillators, who also happened to be carrying one at the time.

After a lengthy period of recovery Lynda says she now feels ready to talk about what happened and hopes to raise public awareness of the fatal dangers of cardiac arrests and the need to have more lifesaving defibrillators in public places.

At around 4pm on January 17 last year Lynda recalls how she suddenly she took ill.

“I felt dizzy,” she said. “I went to say to Graham, my partner, I felt dizzy but by that time I was gone, within three seconds, I just ped.

“I came round lying on the ground. A nurse had stopped to help me, called Michelle. She was leaning over me, she was saying ‘have you any pain?’

“I said ‘my chest, sort of the right’, and I heard her say it was bruised from the compressions. It was then I realised that I had been out of it and she had been working on me.

“She had just been driving past and just stopped her car to help me when she saw me on the ground.”

Lynda was also unaware of her significance of her second helper, a first aider called Phil Batt.

“Eight minutes after a cardiac arrest like this and you are gone, I realised later,” she said. “Phil had been driving past and had a defibrillator in the car. He just stopped the car in the traffic and jumped over the railings. The first shock from the defibrillator was successful.”

Lynda had experienced a ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest, during which the heart cannot find a rhythm. Taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital she underwent CAT scans and various other heart tests.

“They did not find anything,” she said. “They could not find any reason or cause and they said it could happen again.

“People get confused about the difference between heart attacks and cardiac arrests. With cardiac arrests there is a severely abnormal heart rhythm and there is only a six per cent chance of survival as very often there is not a defibrillator.

“One of the consultants in the Royal kept calling me the miracle defibrillator woman. As to whether I believe in fate — I think somebody was looking after me on the day.”

“I am only starting now to really get over it,” she continued. “It was a big shock. I was working, I was fit, and all of a sudden your independence is taken away. You cannot drive for six to eight months. There are a lot of mental challenges to get through as well as the physical ones.”

Now fitted with her own internal defibrillator, attached to her heart using only local anaesthetic, Lynda hopes she is protected from future attacks but wants to do her bit to raise awareness and hopefully save future lives.

She recently went into a school in Holywood to give a talk on cardiac arrests and be part of a heart defibrillator training programme, Heartstart, which is run by the British Heart Foundation.

“I just say that this is the reality of cardiac arrests,” she said. “If Michelle had not acted so quickly on that day I would not be here talking to you. When you have a school full of young people you have a chance to save somebody’s life.

“That was really emotional for me.”

Lynda explained that heart defibrillators usually cost £1,000, which includes training for the device, and assures that it is hard to use incorrectly.

“It is quite user friendly,” she said. “There is an apron which you can put over the person, which shows you where to put the paddles.

“I know, for example, that the Credit Union in Ballynahinch has a defibrillator, but there could be more out there.

“In my case a first response vehicle from the Ambulance Service arrived nine minutes after I collapsed and after 12 minutes the ambulance arrived. By that time I was conscious.

“That sort of time scale, although it may seem quick, is just not enough for a cardiac arrest.”

Any local schools wishing to raise awareness of the use of heart defibrillators are asked to contact Lynda by email on lyndadon@btinternet.com