'Everything lined up that day for me to survive'

A woman who survived a cardiac arrest at home - thanks to her daughter and the air ambulance - said she was now planning an "amazing Christmas".

Ruth Baron, 53, had recently been discharged from hospital after a double heart attack.

She suffered the cardiac arrest while at her home near King's Lynn, Norfolk. Her daughter Jennifer and a friend carried out CPR for 18 minutes while they waited for an air ambulance.

"Everything lined up that day for me to survive," said Ms Baron.

"The care I got right from the start - from my daughter, but also from the medics and while they were getting me to the hospital - was the best I could possibly get.

"The talent of the doctor himself - my mind blows every time... my best friend in Colorado says every time, they would never do something like that in the States.

"She's just gobsmacked that we have such a brilliant service right here in Norfolk - which is the middle of nowhere - but exactly where you need it."

Ms Baron's best friend Summer, from the USA, had been helping her recuperate at home in Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen, when she collapsed in bed in February.

She was turning blue as her heart stopped, so Jennifer started doing chest compressions while Summer concentrated on the breaths.

The pair managed to also ring 999, with land and air ambulances immediately dispatched.

The East Anglian Air Ambulance crew had to scramble over mud, fences and hedges to get to Ms Baron in the rural village.

Due to the precarious route, she was then taken to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital by road.

Two medics from the air team treated her on the way, before Ms Baron went on to spend three weeks unconscious and a total of two months in hospital while having a cardiac stent and internal defibrillator fitted.

Ms Baron said she was one of the 8% of people who had survived a cardiac arrest outside of hospital.

"I'm doing amazing - my lungs are vastly improved [and] my heart is doing exactly what it should do," she said.

"We're going to have an amazing Christmastide - an entire week of celebrating, doing things and being a family - and me being there, it's going to be a big one."

Jennifer, who had learned how to give CPR while at school in the US, added: "Having her there is going to be the Christmas present."

Ms Baron said she had supported the air ambulance charity for three years as she feared having a car accident in her rural area.

"It turns out I was very desperately in need of them and I was very, very thankful they've been there for me."

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