Fit and healthy Queenslander Ben Ayres, 44, felt breathless as he ran on the treadmill but shrugged it off and continued his Saturday morning workout in the gym.<\/p>\n
But once he got back to his home at Birtinya, on the Sunshine Coast, there was tightness in his chest and he felt “a bit off” when he hopped into the shower.<\/p>\n
“For some reason, not feeling well, I packed a bag to go to hospital,” Mr Ayres said.<\/p>\n
He called his neighbour, longtime family friend Claire Harkett, and asked for a lift.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Claire Harkett came to Mr Ayres’s aid in the nick of time. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jake Kearnan)<\/p>\n
“We grabbed his bag, headed towards the door and he collapsed and was unconscious, but he was breathing,” she said.<\/p>\n
“My Girl Guide instincts kicked in \u2014 I put him in the recovery position, and it all happened very fast from there, because he stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
“I got onto emergency services as quickly as I could and they guided me through the steps.<\/p>\n
“I was doing CPR the whole time, which went for about 12 minutes.”‘Didn’t expect anything like this’<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres said calling Ms Harkett was the last thing he remembered before he regained consciousness.<\/p>\n
“The next thing I know I had woken up in hospital and was told I had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest,” he said.<\/p>\n
A complete blockage to Mr Ayres’s left anterior descending artery required emergency surgery to have a stent put in.<\/p>\n
He had no family history of heart disease.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t expect anything like this would ever happen to me,” he said.<\/p>\n
“On average I work out four to five times a week, I’ve always been a recreational runner, I’ve never smoked and generally eat well.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a really good reminder that things like this don’t discriminate they can happen to anyone regardless of how well you look after yourself.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chris Beadnell says Mr Ayres’s case highlights the importance of first aid training. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jake Kearnan)<\/p>\n
‘Chain of survival’<\/p>\n
On the day of the incident, May 31, Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics arrived 12 minutes after Ms Harkett started administering CPR.<\/p>\n
They applied a defibrillator within 45 seconds and Mr Ayres’s pulse returned.<\/p>\n
Paramedic Chris Beadnell commended his team’s response.<\/p>\n
“This is a really great case of showing the chain of survival in cardiac arrest working \u2014 so all those factors actually occurred in this case and we’ve had an excellent outcome with Ben,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s really important for people to understand learning resuscitation, finding access to defibrillators in the community and knowing where they are.<\/p>\n
“We’re extremely lucky that all of those things happened in sequence \u2014 because of that we’ve had a really positive outcome.<\/p>\n
“If one piece of that chain breaks, we almost definitely are going to have a poor outcome.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres with his wife, Samantha, Emmy and Olle and friend Ms Harkett. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jake Kearnan)<\/p>\n
A chilling phone call<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres’s wife Samantha Ayres and their children, Olle and Emmy, were in Adelaide visiting family when the medical episode occurred.<\/p>\n
“It just felt like our whole world had been pulled from under our feet,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The shock of it and the not knowing \u2014 I just wanted to be next to him and there was the panic of wanting to get back as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
“The kids were incredible \u2014 I was just trying to hold it together as much as possible for them.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres’s wife and kids were visiting family in Adelaide when he suffered a heart attack in May. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jake Kearnan)<\/p>\n
Ms Ayres said the Harketts had been family friends for more than 18 years.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think there is anything we can do or owe her that will be enough for how grateful we are to her,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Just knowing Ben picked up the phone and called her and she was there within seconds and literally saved his life \u2013 I’m forever grateful.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres, who met the paramedics who came to his aid, said he was at a loss as to how to adequately express his gratitude.<\/p>\n
“How do you thank people enough that have saved your life?” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m here with my two kids and my beautiful wife and I’m essentially living a normal life now.<\/p>\n
“I can’t thank them enough.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fit and healthy Queenslander Ben Ayres, 44, felt breathless as he ran on the treadmill but shrugged it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,80514,80516,17724,80515,80517,80513,105],"class_list":["post-112716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cpr","tag-cpr-course","tag-emergency-services","tag-first-aid","tag-first-aid-course","tag-first-responders","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}