Near Death Experience

For the record, I had a Cardiac Arrest a week before your message and I’d appreciate it if you let people know who might be interested. The events run as follows:

Monday 19th: arrive home c. 4.00pm by bike to go a do some campaign work for Tony Windsor (MHR, New England). By very good luck, my wife, Dot was close by as I collapsed in the garage, and she called an ambulance immediately. The second stroke of luck was that 3 ambulances arrived in 5 minutes. Had I been out of town on a property and the arrival time was 10 to 15 minutes, some of you would have already attended my funeral.

The third stroke of luck was that they were able to jump-start my heart. Cardiac arrest is potentially more serious than a stroke or heart attack. The latter impair the functioning of the brain, but usually don’t kill it. I was detained in the Armidale and New England Hospital for 1 wee while diagnostics guided the course of action. I cannot remember a single fact about this week or about the subsequent trip in an Air Ambulance to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. I can recall waking up in JHH and seeing Dot’s apparition, and I suppose this was on about Wednesday 28 November.

This was the fourth stroke of luck. Dot was able to help me though further batteries of tests and the utter boredom of hospital routine, but I must admit that the quality of care at JHH was very good – as I am told it was in ANE.

Then, on Monday this week, I moved to the Lake Macquarie Private Hospital for the ultimate operation. I’d heard of pace-makers, but not the machine I’m now tethered to for the rest of my life. This small all-singing, all-dancing contraption constantly monitors heart performance and can accelerate or depress beat speed AND/OR change the amplitude of the beat AND/OR the pattern of the beat.

I returned home yesterday by road and am now trying to regain normal life. I’ll start riding my bike in a week; bush-walking a little before that. My Newcastle based Psychologist and Speech Therapists found little wrong with my mental processes.

Sorry for rambling on a long time.