'Lifeguards shocked my heart to save me,' says woman who suffered cardiac arrest at Finchley Lido

Trainee doctor praises scheme to put defibrillators in public places

A trainee doctor told today how her life was saved after she suffered a cardiac arrest while swimming in her local pool.

Natasha Weisz, 32, was dragged out by lifeguards at Finchley Lido on May 4 and had her heart restarted with a defibrillator after they spotted that she had slumped against the lane ropes.

She is one of at least 31 Londoners known to have survived a cardiac arrest due to the use of publicly available defibrillators since the launch last year of the London Ambulance Service’s Shockingly Easy campaign to increase the number of the life-saving devices.

She received three shocks from lifeguards before paramedics took over and administered two more shocks. She spent several days in intensive care at St Mary’s hospital, Paddington, and has made a full recovery.

Ms Weisz, from Finchley, a rheumatologist at Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, said: “I remember getting in the swimming pool, but I don’t remember anything else until I woke up a few days later in hospital.

“I could have been somewhere else and I may not have survived. These machines are very important to save lives. It’s not just the case that you need CPR, you do need to be defibrillated in certain situations. I’m really grateful to the staff. They reacted very quickly on the day. I was incredibly lucky.”

London Ambulance Service today celebrated getting an extra 1,000 defibrillators into public places as a result of the campaign and there are now more than 2,800 in the capital.

A total of 31 people shocked with a public-access defibrillator made a full recovery, with news of the long-term condition of 23 awaited.

Ms Weisz has been fitted with a ICD pacemaker — implantable cardiac defibrillator — at Hammersmith hospital to shock her heart if she suffers another arrest after she was diagnosed with the heart condition cardiomyopathy.

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Advanced paramedic Chelsey Pike, who was in the ambulance response team, said: “If it hadn’t been for the lifeguards, who promptly recognised that she was in cardiac arrest and immediately treated her, it’s unlikely that she’d be alive today. The lifeguards were excellent. They saved her life.”

Lifeguard Osam Layeth said: “I knew straightaway she had a cardiac arrest. It’s an amazing machine to have. It’s the first time we have used it.”

Fellow lifeguard Chloe O’Grady said: “To see her now is just brilliant.”

Defibrillators can increase survival rates for patients from 32 per cent to about 80 per cent for those whose heart is in a “shockable rhythm”.

Shockingly Easy operational lead Chris Hartley-Sharpe said: “When someone has a cardiac arrest, the quicker they receive treatment, the more likely they are to survive.”

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