HEALTH SCARE FOR RUTH
AN emotional Mayor Tom Tate has paid tribute to healthcare workers who helped Mayoress Ruth Tate after a shock health scare.
Mrs Tate collapsed at the Southport pre-poll booth on Lawson Street about 6pm on Tuesday while packing up signage from her husband’s campaign.
She was rushed to hospital where she is receiving treatment.
“Ruth is recovering well, the episode was a heart condition,” Cr Tate said yesterday. “It had a problem and didn’t pump the oxygen to the brain and she passed out.
“Unfortunately, she fell on her face and now we have to see about awaiting surgery, but her specialist is actually quarantined.
“She is in coronary care but she has been getting messages from wellwishers.”
Cr Tate praised the efforts of medical staff who helped his wife and said it reinforced the importance of frontline workers amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
“I take the opportunity to thank the paramedics and the medical staff for looking after her. I have seen first-hand how wonderful these people are.
“I went to emergency and was in a hurry to see how she was but had to take a deep breath to answer all the questions.
“How good is that? Hats off to them for having a stringent criteria for having people visit right now.
“Our health system is firstclass.”
Cr Tate temporarily suspended campaigning yesterday to spend time with his wife.
A booth worker said: “Ruth just fainted at a booth, hit her head, they took her to hospital.
“She had been knocking in signs, taking some of the Aframe corflutes. She has been doing a hell of lot of work.
“She’s fallen and hit her head on the concrete path. There was a cone on the path to cover the blood. It was right in front of the polling booth. I really hope she is OK. I feel really bad for her.”
Another poll volunteer said: “There was quite a lot of blood. She cracked her head open. We hope she is OK. It is going to be overnight for observation.”
In 2017, Cr Tate saved his wife’s life when she collapsed without warning just minutes before boarding a flight to Europe.
Mrs Tate, then 59, had a serious cardiac arrest while walking through Singapore’s Changi Airport hand-inhand with her husband.
The heart attack was so serious that medical staff had to perform an emergency evacuation to Changi General Hospital where Mrs Tate was placed in an induced coma.
Cr Tate had only just learned the skills of CPR, having done a first aid course in his office.
RUTH IS RECOVERING WELL, THE EPISODE WAS A HEART CONDITION … IT HAD A PROBLEM AND … SHE PASSED OUT