{"id":328509,"date":"2026-03-08T16:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T16:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328509\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T16:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T16:04:07","slug":"bench-unveiled-in-living-tribute-to-fermanagh-cardiac-arrest-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328509\/","title":{"rendered":"Bench unveiled in \u2018living tribute\u2019 to Fermanagh cardiac arrest survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

An iconic British Heart Foundation red bench has been unveiled near Enniskillen<\/a> Castle, to recognise a Fermanagh runner who had a cardiac arrest \u2013 and lived to tell the tale.<\/p>\n

Adam Cooke had a cardiac arrest in March 2024 while asleep in bed and thanks to the incredible instincts of his golden retriever Polly, barking to wake up Adam\u2019s wife Hannah, who performed CPR and phoned the emergency services, Adam\u2019s life was saved.<\/p>\n

Adam, 39, a draughtsman for a steel company and keen runner, described that \u201cnormal\u201d Monday in March when he went to work and when he came home, went for his \u201cusual\u201d evening run.<\/p>\n

Adam said: \u201cHannah and I put our son Alfie, who was one at the time, to bed and then went to bed ourselves around 9.30pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing I remember was six days later, waking up in the cardiac ward in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Cooke from Ballinamallard with wife Hannah, son Alfie and dog Polly. An iconic red British Heart Foundation bench has been installed at the foreground of Enniskillen Castle, along the Broadmeadow path in living tribute to Adam, having survived a cardiac arrest two years ago. Pictured alongside Adam and family are Fearghal McKinney, Head of British Heart Foundation, Councillor Shirley Hawkes, Vice Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and Parks Manager Stewart Burns. (Image: BHF.)<\/p>\n

Hannah, 33, describes how she was awoken around 12.45am by their dog Polly\u2019s barking, which was unusual during the night, so she checked the time on her phone.<\/p>\n

Hannah said: \u201cPolly would bark the odd time if she hears anything as she sleeps in the kitchen which is directly below our bedroom. She\u2019s very in tune with Adam, and when she barks I usually turn to Adam to tell him. That\u2019s when I suddenly realised he was breathing very noisily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard the noise Adam was making I sat bolt upright in bed as I previously worked as a carer and it hit me that it was the same noise I\u2019ve heard when people are taking their final breaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah rang the emergency services and they advised her to pull Adam off the bed and onto the floor immediately and start CPR.<\/p>\n

Hannah continued: \u201cAdam is so much bigger than I am so I really don\u2019t know how I got the strength but I managed to roll him off the bed and the call handler talked me through CPR. He was amazing at keeping me focused on what I had to do, as I was completely terrified.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was giving Adam CPR, I could tell his whole body was fighting to come back. Sometimes he would open his eyes and I was shouting, this isn\u2019t your time to go. I knew he was meant to stay alive, it was fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Cooke from Ballinamallard with wife Hannah, son Alfie and dog Polly. An iconic red British Heart Foundation bench has been installed at the foreground of Enniskillen Castle, along the Broadmeadow path in living tribute to Adam, having survived a cardiac arrest two years ago. Pictured alongside Adam and family are Fearghal McKinney, Head of British Heart Foundation, Councillor Shirley Hawkes, Vice Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and Parks Manager Stewart Burns. (Image: BHF.)<\/p>\n

After around seven minutes, the ambulance, community responder and two paramedics all arrived together and ran straight in to take over from Hannah.<\/p>\n

Hannah said: \u201cI collapsed outside the room in complete shock and a neighbour ran in and helped me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paramedics continued CPR and used a defibrillator to shock Adam back to life. My memory was they kept saying he was back and then they lost him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paramedics shocked Adam seven times in total between his house and the hospital before they could get his heart rate normalised.<\/p>\n

Adam was taken to ICU in the local hospital and Hannah mentions the \u201cindescribable relief\u201d that she and family members felt when the doctor told them Adam had survived.<\/p>\n

Hannah said: \u201cPolly alerted me, possibly within seconds of Adam\u2019s cardiac arrest, she was the first responder. Because of her, I was able to start CPR almost immediately. The paramedics and first responders were amazing, they arrived so quickly and took action immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam said: \u201cI have always been very fit, running was a very important part of my life for over 20 years, and I took part in countless races from 5k distances up to multiple marathons. I was a member of Enniskillen Running Club and Omagh Harriers, I ran four or five times a week and did a bit of gym work. My resting heart rate was usually around 38 \u2013 in the hospital after my cardiac arrest they said I had a heart rate of an Olympic athlete, and this worked in my favour for recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI remember going for the run on the Monday evening before my cardiac arrest and my next memory is almost a week later on the Sunday. I woke up in the hospital and the medical staff were all amazing at explaining everything but it felt very surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam was in hospital for three and a half weeks for monitoring and testing before an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) was fitted and he was discharged. Adam mentions that during that time in hospital he \u201cabsorbed\u201d all the information he could on his situation and found the British Heart Foundation leaflets and online information easy to understand and \u201ca real comfort\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

Adam has since received a number of genetic tests and screening tests at Belfast City Hospital where he has been given a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and will continue to have regular check-ups.<\/p>\n

DCM is a disease of your heart muscle which enlarges your heart\u2019s main pumping chamber (left ventricle), causing your heart\u2019s muscle wall to stretch and become thin (dilate). This makes it harder for your heart to pump blood out of your heart and around your body.<\/p>\n

Adam spoke about his recovery since his cardiac arrest: \u201cI have recovered extremely well but instead of running as much, I have adapted and generally enjoy being outdoors keeping fit. Sometimes if I over-exert myself I can feel a bit out of breath and dizzy, but I now know to look out for it and rest if that happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a routine-driven person and for most of my adult life, running had been embedded in that. It was tough to accept at first that I couldn\u2019t exercise to that level anymore but I\u2019ve got a new routine and I\u2019m happy. The important thing for me is that I\u2019ve got an ICD which gives me real comfort and is peace of mind for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s bench is situated at the foreground of Enniskillen Castle, along the Broadmeadow path.<\/p>\n

The Ballinamallard man said: \u201cI\u2019m delighted that my bench has been placed in such a popular setting where many families visit regularly, as it is important to me that the bench is there for the community to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a bench in my name means a lot to me as it\u2019s a reminder of how precious life is and how grateful I am for the care I\u2019ve received to give me a second chance at life as well as the importance of the research work that BHF does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An iconic British Heart Foundation red bench has been unveiled near Enniskillen Castle, to recognise a Fermanagh runner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[162222,162225,75153,40078,162223,163,85,46,162224],"class_list":["post-328509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-adam-cooke","tag-ballinamallard","tag-british-heart-foundation","tag-cardiac-arrest","tag-enniskillen-castle","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-wife-hannah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}