Healthy man, 35 from Didcot suffered a cardiac arrest

Steve Paley from Didcot, went out for a bike ride with his fiancé, Stacey Pritchard, 30, on New Year’s Eve. However, after cycling for a short distance he began to feel unwell before suddenly collapsing.

The couple, who had been on a health kick for most of 2020 exercised regularly and ate healthily, and had lost an impressive four and a half stone between them. They set off on a bike ride to Blewbury and planned to see the New Year in at home.

Mr Paley is the manager of a small truck washing business, had no underlying health conditions or any indication that there was a problem with his heart.

He said: “I remember setting off but the next thing I remember is waking up in hospital.”

Ms Pritchard said; “We’d only cycled about a kilometre when Steve stopped and got off his bike and told me he wasn’t feeling well. Then it looked like he fainted, but when I couldn’t wake him up, I began to panic.”

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Ms Pritchard had started CPR on her fiancé then flagged down a passing car, driven by a local teacher called Sarah, who then called 999 before taking over CPR. A second car stopped to assist and fortunately it was being driven by off-duty SCAS Paramedic, Steph White, who took over CPR from Sarah. Further people also stopped to help, including a former SCAS ambulance technician and a SCAS non-emergency patient transport service crew.

Within a few minutes, a rapid response vehicle and paramedic, Rob Dalziel had arrived. Two shocks from a defibrillator were administered which achieved ROSC - a palpable pulse indicating his heart had restarted - and they then put a LUCAS device on his chest, which carries out mechanical chest compressions. He was then put into a coma at the roadside and taken on blue lights to the cardiac team at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Mr Paley said: “I was placed in an induced coma for a day and a half and had a small defibrillator inserted in my chest which can detect irregular heartbeats and deliver a shock to fix abnormal heart rhythms if needed. I’m well on the road to recovery and whilst I’m not back at work yet, I’ve got no other health issues or long-term damage from what happened to me. I just feel incredibly lucky and it’s all down to the amazing people who came to help me when I needed it.”

The couple have now signed up for first aid training and set up a fundraiser on Go Fund Me called ‘Steve’s Second Chance’ and raised more than £500 for the South Central Ambulance Charity. The charity is currently focused on growing bystander CPR through community engagement and funding the life-saving LUCAS devices - two important factors in Steve’s cardiac arrest emergency that significantly contributed to his survival and recovery.

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