Cardiac arrest survivor training others in the skills that helped to save his life

In 2021 Dan Gilkes, then age 56 from Bury St Edmunds, suffered a cardiac arrest while he was asleep one night. His wife, Mel, quickly called 999. The call-handler talked her through how to perform CPR on her husband, while the ambulance service and East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) were both called to the scene.

Dan survived thanks to the prompt CPR and advanced critical care he received. As he approaches the third anniversary of his incident, he has become a volunteer with EAAA to train others in the CPR skills that helped to save his life.

It was around 3 o’clock in the morning on 16 August 2021 when Dan suffered a life-threatening cardiac arrest. He says he was incredibly lucky that his wife, Mel, woke up and rang 999, and that the call handler recognised his agonal breathing and told her how to carry out CPR. This was significant in starting Dan’s chain of survival.

Dan adds that he was “gone” for between 10-12 minutes. The ambulance paramedics gave him three shocks with an AED (automatic external defibrillator), which “brought me back.” EAAA Critical Care Paramedic, Joe, arrived and provided Dan with enhanced pre-hospital care at the scene before accompanying him to the hospital, where he spent two to three days in an induced coma. He later had a S-ICD (Subcutaneous Defibrillator) fitted a week later at the Royal Papworth Hospital and returned home three weeks after his cardiac arrest to continue his road to recovery.

Dan’s experience led him to become an advocate for CPR, the skill that helped to save his life. Earlier this year, he became a volunteer CPR Trainer with East Anglian Air Ambulance to teach this skill to others. EAAA’s Community CPR Training Programme aims to teach life-saving CPR to over 20,000 people every year. This means more people can step in to perform bystander CPR and use a community defibrillator, until the arrival of the emergency services, in the event of a cardiac arrest.