Woman meets 999 crews who saved her life

A woman has been reunited with the ambulance crews who saved her life when she had a cardiac arrest - saying it was thanks to them "my children still have a mum".

Sian Deeks, 45, from Scunthorpe, was at her partner's house on 7 June when she became unresponsive and slumped on the kitchen work surface.

Her partner was advised by the 999 call handler to lie Ms Deeks on the floor and carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Paramedics from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance Service arrived and restarted her heart with a defibrillator.

Daniel's call was answered by emergency medical adviser Tim Higham-Jones, who had advised him to lay Ms Deeks on her back and carry out the resuscitation.

When ambulance and air ambulance colleagues arrived, Ms Deeks' airway was kept open and CPR was maintained, with a defibrillator attached to her.

After 17 minutes, EMAS delivered two shocks as Ms Deeks' heart was in a "shockable rhythm".

She was then taken by road to the Resuscitation Department at Scunthorpe General Hospital.

For a second time on the following morning, Ms Deeks went into a second cardiac arrest while in the Intensive Care Unit.

Six minutes later following advanced life support given to Ms Deeks she had managed to survive.

Ms Deeks said: “I would never have thought I’d have gone into cardiac arrest ever," she said.

"You just never think it would happen to you.

"I don’t remember any of it, but Daniel said he was calling out to me, and I wasn’t responding to him.

"I’ve lived with heart failure for a few years now, so while he [her partner] didn’t know it was a cardiac arrest, he had an inkling it was due to a complication with my heart."

Ms Deeks said she was grateful to her partner and all the medics who saved her life so her children were "not having to scatter their mother’s ashes".

Specialist practitioner Steve Green, who had attended the 999 call, said: "The advanced life support we delivered to Sian wouldn’t have been as successful, if it hadn’t been for Daniel taking instant action with bystander CPR.

"While he was understandably quite emotional when we got there, we reassured Daniel that he’d given Sian the best chance of survival by delivering effective hands-on CPR at the earliest opportunity."

Ms Deeks said: "It’s been so nice getting to meet those involved in my critical care at the time it was needed, and it’s been amazing getting to know them and see what they all look like – before they were just names to me.

“What’s happened just reiterates how important it is for everyone to know how to do CPR because you can literally save somebody’s life.”

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