Heart-stopping Pit-stop
November 19th 2007

Ever wondered what your chances would be if you had a heart attack at the wheel of your car? When amateur racing driver John Yea suffered a potentially fatal sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) during a classic-racing-car race day at Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire, luck was on his side.

A medical team and a HeartStart defibrillator were on hand to give him emergency life-saving treatment – making him one of an average of only 5% of people in the UK each year to escape sudden cardiac death after an out-of-hospital SCA.

Fifty seven year-old John Yea, whose classic-car parts manufacturing business, British Motor Heritage corroborates his passion for the sport, has been racing for over 10 years. In his recollection of the event, he explained, “Earlier that morning, I had driven to work in a high performance car to collect the race car, which was loaded onto a trailer. I then drove the van, towing the trailer, a couple of hours down the motorway to Castle Combe. In retrospect, I had experienced a slight tightening of the chest, but no pain and no previous history of a heart condition, so thought nothing of it. I had been racing around the circuit for around twenty minutes when some rubber debris came onto the track. After the debris had been cleared, I was accelerating back up to speed but suddenly felt very tired, so decided to pull over. It was then that I passed out.”

Crash

The car veered off track into the barrier, then ricocheted off the circuit into an adjacent cornfield. The car came to a stop approximately two feet from one of the event’s rescue vehicles, where a doctor from the vehicle saw John slumped over the wheel, not breathing. The doctor immediately pulled John from the car and started CPR while the circuit’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jerry Nolan was radioed.

Dr Nolan said, “When I arrived on the scene about a minute later, John was clearly in cardiac arrest so I radioed for the immediate delivery of one of the circuit’s HeartStart defibrillators. By the time it arrived, CPR had been administered for probably about 5 minutes in total. I applied the AED (automated external defibrillator) whilst volunteer medic Neil Bradbury did chest compressions and one of the doctor’s ventilated John’s lungs. The AED advised delivery of a shock after a very brief analysis time. I gave one shock and CPR was restarted immediately. John started moving about thirty seconds after the shock, and had regained consciousness within two minutes. He was taken to hospital in a St John Ambulance accompanied by one of our doctors.”

Happy ending

At the hospital, John went on to have a double heart by-pass operation after it was found that one of his main arteries was entirely blocked and another was ninety percent blocked. Some weeks later, John is up and about, having survived his ordeal to tell the tale. He said, “I am under no illusions that I was extremely fortunate that my event occurred where the necessary equipment and expertise was readily available - it now appears that the state of my cardiac arteries was just an accident waiting to happen. I am a great supporter of whatever can be done to make these machines more widely accessible to the public. In fact have just ordered one for my place of work.”

Not just for elderly people

Neil Bradbury has been a volunteer medic at race events for 18 years. He is also Clinical Support Manager for HeartStart AED supplier Laerdal Medical Ltd, a worldwide company whose aim is to help save lives through the development of life saving, emergency medical equipment and training products. Neil said, “Sadly, each year, there are a number of cases of sporting people suffering sudden cardiac arrest whilst swimming, running, playing football, and during other recreational activities. Currently, the out of hospital survival rate of SCA is less than 5%. The chance of survival drops by around 10% with each passing minute. Prompt defibrillation combined with CPR before the arrival of a paramedic can make a huge difference to these survival rates. Thankfully, more and more public access sporting venues are starting to have on-site defibrillators, and fortunately for John, Castle Combe is one of those.”

Dr Jerry Nolan, Chairman of the Resuscitation Council UK in addition to being Castle Combe circuit’s Chief Medical Officer, concluded, “Early defibrillation enabled John to recover from his ordeal and go on to receive a life-saving operation. Like many AEDs, the HeartStart AED from Laerdal Medical is very easy to use. Portable AEDs like this should be available at all major sporting events – not just for competitors but also for spectators.“

For further information about HeartStart defibrillators, just  click here.

More articles from Laerdal Medical Ltd: