Stockton woman urges others to check for cardiac arrest symptoms
73 year-old Sue Wilkinson had a cardiac arrest on this day in 2021
A woman from Teesside who had a cardiac arrest four years ago is urging other women to get symptoms checked.
73 year-old Sue Wilkinson from Stockton 'died' for 50 minutes as paramedics tried to restart her heart on this day in 2021.
Earlier in the day, she rang 111 and informed the operator that she had a really bad pain between her shoulder blades, which led to a crew from the North East Ambulance Service being sent to her home to check her over.
Sue said: “They were taking a history when I said I think I am going to faint, and my heart stopped. They pulled me onto the floor and started CPR and I was unresponsive. My partner Alistair was demented. He thought I'd gone.
“They called another team out which was the CIPHER medical ambulance crew and continued CPR and then GNAAS came. They gave me eight shocks and got my heart started again. When I think about it, I go hot and cold because I think 'what if they only gave me seven shocks?' I'd be dead. I'd be gone."
The retired civil servant was placed in an induced coma on scene by the doctor and paramedic from GNAAS and taken to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough where she stayed for six days.
Sue added: "If you have a cardiac arrest out of hospital, you have a less than 10% chance of surviving it. It still makes me go and hot and cold. I don't have any memory of the first few days in hospital because they put in an induced coma, took me to James Cook where I had stents put in.
"I've had four years of a second chance at life and I'm determined to enjoy it. feel so grateful to the air ambulance crew that here I am, I've had three Christmases, three birthdays with my family and all the other things. I wake up happy every day because I've woken up basically. I think 'yes, I've got another day.'
"Women don't experience usually the same symptoms as men that are having a heart attack. I was walking around the shops with a pain between my shoulder blades and I was actually having a heart attack at that time, so it's really important for women to get to know what might be a heart attack and always be on the safe side and get help."
She has since reunited with the teams who helped her and signed up as a volunteer for GNAAS, who are entirely reliant on public donations.
GNAAS say they do not receive Government funding and must therefore raise £9.3m a year through public donations to remain operational. This means the cost per day for the charity is £25,200. On average, the charity respond to six call-outs per day.
For more information, visit their website.