A woman who says her “children still have a mum thanks to everyone involved in my care”, has been reunited with the ambulance crews who responded in her time of need.
On the afternoon of 7 June 2024, 45-year-old Sian Deeks went over to her partner Daniel’s house. They were in the middle of a conversation when Sian started to lean against the worktop in the kitchen and became unresponsive – she had gone into cardiac arrest.
Speaking of that day, Sian said: “I would never have thought I’d have gone into cardiac arrest ever. You just never think it would happen to you.
“I don’t remember any of it, but Daniel said he was calling out to me, and I wasn’t responding to him.
“I’ve lived with heart failure for a few years now, so while he didn’t know it was a cardiac arrest, he had an inkling it was due to a complication with my heart.
“That’s when he put me in the recovery position and dialled 999.”
Daniel’s call was answered by Emergency Medical Advisor Tim Higham-Jones, who advised Daniel to lay Sian flat on her back and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until ambulance clinicians could take over.
Tim said: “Daniel followed the instructions as I told him to, which was brilliant.
“He was able to start CPR on Sian within seconds of the call, which gave her a fighting chance.”
Responding to the scene were EMAS paramedics Kirsty Taylor, Colette Kerridge, and Ryan Johnson, student paramedic Michaela Wressell, ambulance technician Sandro Oliveira, and specialist practitioner Steve Green. Also, in attendance from Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance Service (LNAA) were HEMS paramedic Craig Blair, senior HEMS paramedic Erica Ley, and Dr Jonathan Adams.
Steve Green said: “The advanced life support we delivered to Sian wouldn’t have been as successful, if it hadn’t been for Daniel taking instant action with bystander CPR.
“While he was understandably quite emotional when we got there, we reassured Daniel that he’d given Sian the best chance of survival by delivering effective hands-on CPR at the earliest opportunity.
“CPR not only save lives, but the quicker it’s delivered also reduces the risk of adverse and irreversible damage to the brain for those who do survive.”
Upon the arrival of ambulance and air ambulance colleagues, Sian’s airway was managed to keep it open – allowing the flow of oxygen to her body to be uninterrupted, CPR was maintained, and a defibrillator was attached to Sian.
After approximately 17 minutes, the defibrillator identified Sian’s heart as being in a shockable rhythm, and after two shocks were delivered, her heart was beating again – however, Sian was not out of the woods yet.
Steve added: “Once we managed to stabilize Sian’s condition, we then needed to get her safely out of the property and to hospital as quickly as possible.
“She was taken by road in the ambulance, travelling with myself and the LNAA team. We continued to manage her airway and ensure she remained stable until we got to the hospital.”
Sian was then handed over to the Resuscitation Department at Scunthorpe General Hospital, while still sedated and intubated.
In the early hours of the following morning, Sian went into cardiac arrest for a second time while in the Intensive Care Unit.
Sian said: “A nurse spotted it when she was doing her observations. She had apparently shone a light into my eyes to see they had gone into the back of my head, and the machines attached to me started beeping.”
Miraculously, after six minutes of further advanced life support being delivered to Sian, she managed to survive her second cardiac arrest in less than 24 hours.
Sian says experiencing these major events on top of living with an existing heart condition has been challenging, but she is grateful to her partner Daniel, and all the medics who she credits as her reason for her children “not having to scatter their mother’s ashes.”
Sian added: “It’s been so nice getting to meet those involved in my critical care at the time it was needed, and it’s been amazing getting to know them and see what they all look like – before they were just names to me.
“What’s happened just reiterates the importance for everyone to know how to do CPR because you can literally save somebody’s life.”
Top tips
A medical emergency involving the heart, such as a cardiac arrest or a heart attack can happen to anyone at any time.
A cardiac arrest (what happened to Sian Deeks) is when your heart suddenly stops pumping blood around your body. Although it is sometimes mistaken for a heart attack, if someone is in cardiac arrest they collapse suddenly and will be unconscious, unresponsive, and not breathing or breathing normally – this may mean they’re making gasping noises.
A heart attack happens when there’s a sudden loss of blood flow to a part of the heart muscle. This causes symptoms such as pain or a feeling of pressure or a burning in the chest. Someone having a heart attack is usually conscious.
Both a cardiac arrest and a heart attack are medical emergencies, and you should call 999 straight away.
While we don’t want to scare people, it is important to consider the following tips to help increase yours and others’ chances of survival should the worst happen:
Cardiac arrest
- Learn how to do CPR – receiving CPR within the first three to four minutes of a cardiac arrest is crucial in terms of maximising the chances of survival and reducing the risk of the person living with a brain injury if they do survive. The British Heart Foundation also has really helpful resources on CPR and defibrillators.
- When calling 999 for someone who is in cardiac arrest, in addition to being advised to perform CPR, if there is someone else with you, they may be advised to go and fetch a public access defibrillator if we identify an available one nearby. They are often in places like train stations, schools, and shopping centres. Anyone can use one and you don’t need training to do so.
Heart attack
- If you’re experiencing chest pains, try not to exert yourself physically unnecessarily, such as going upstairs to bed if you’re already downstairs – instead lay yourself down on the sofa. Most chest pain is not a sign of anything serious but you should get medical advice just in case. If the pain gets worse (makes your chest feel tight or heavy) or rapidly starts progressing to other parts of the body eg arms, back, neck or jaw – this could be a heart attack. If this happens, call 999 and remain downstairs so the responding ambulance crew will have easy access to you.
- If you have had a heart attack, it's important that you rest while you wait for an ambulance, to avoid unnecessary strain on your heart. When you call 999, the Emergency Medical Advisor may advise you to take aspirin for this chest pain. Aspirin helps to thin your blood and improve blood flow to your heart.