Gary: It was 8 December 2021, a Wednesday, and a day I’ll never forget. Olivia had the day off and I’d just finished work so we were both at home. My wife, Karen, was bringing Olivia a cup of tea but saw she wasn’t moving. Panicking, she ran to get me. I checked her pulse, but she wasn’t breathing. She had basically died. I pulled her onto the floor and began CPR. Thankfully it was the day after my first aid refresher course, so all my training was at the forefront of my mind. I’m so glad I knew what to do. Everyone should know basic CPR – it saves lives.
I told my wife to call 999 and the emergency call handler was brilliant. She stayed with me the whole time and had a beeper to help time my chest compressions. I managed to get her breathing again, but it kept stopping and starting.
The ambulance only took around eight minutes to arrive but it felt like ages. My adrenaline kept me going.
Although I hadn’t realised at the time, Olivia had aspirated, which meant she'd breathed food into her lungs. I carried on with the CPR until the paramedic got the defibrillator and applied the pads to give her a shock. I continued with the compressions, but Olivia arrested again.
The paramedics decided it would be best to put her into an induced coma to give her body a rest, and then they took her to St George’s hospital in London. We saw a doctor who told us that Olivia had blood clots on her lungs which had caused her heart rate to go up to 180 beats per minute before it stopped.
But the biggest danger for Olivia was the fluid in her lungs caused by the aspiration. She was in a coma for three and half weeks but she slowly improved and eventually, on Boxing Day, they removed her breathing tube. When I saw her sitting up in bed, I broke down. I was so relieved that she was okay.
