Dad who 'dropped dead' in middle of gym session was saved by off-duty nurse
24.09.2023 - 18:05
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A dad who suddenly collapsed in the middle of a gym session has told how he 'owes everything' to an off-duty nurse who saved his life. Ste O'Grady, 41, was on the treadmill at Total Fitness when he suffered a heart attack and fell to the floor.
Luckily for him, A&E nurse Kayleigh Garcia was close by and stepped in to administer CPR as gym staff rushed to grab a defibrillator, the Liverpool Echo reports. Ste, of Widnes, said: "I remember being on the treadmill and I felt a bit of dizziness, so I went to stop the machine - but I was gone before I even had the chance.
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"The next thing I remember was waking up to Kayleigh with the defibrillator. It was a sudden cardiac arrest. My heart just stopped. Fortunately for me, Kayleigh was there that day."
Ste, a dad-of-two, was taken hospital where he received an ICD - a small internal device which uses electrical pulses to regulate abnormal heart rhythms, preventing future cardiac arrests.
He said: "I actually drove to the gym with my brother and two sons that day. I was feeling perfectly fine that morning right up until the moment I dropped dead. As soon as I woke up, I felt perfectly fine and I have done ever since.
"I owe Kayleigh everything. She saved my life. I can't put it in any better words than she saved my life that day, along with the team at the gym who grabbed the defibrillator."
Kayleigh, 34, from Walton, said: "I was at the pool watching my daughter's swimming lesson when I noticed there was a commotion on the first floor of the gym. I saw someone on the floor and went over; they said there was a man collapsed on the