‘We all cheated death’
Although these ladies look fit and healthy, they all came dangerously close to losing their lives…
‘I was “dead” for three minutes’
Katie Warrington, 27, is a nursery nurse from Gravesend, Kent.
There’s not many people who can say that they’ve actually ‘died’, but I am one of them. For a total of three minutes, I stopped breathing. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to wake up every morning. It all started after a 3km run I’d done with a local fitness club in June 2016. As I crossed the finish line, I felt very light-headed and faint. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital, surrounded by my family. They told me three days had passed, and that I’d had a seizure and collapsed. I’d been gasping for air, then stopped breathing. Three minutes went by before two of my fellow runners arrived and administered CPR, meaning I was effectively dead. Thankfully, they tried to resuscitate me for 10 minutes, and it was their quick actions that got my heart going again. When an ambulance arrived, paramedics used a defibrillator before I was intubated and taken to hospital. Terrifyingly, doctors only gave me a 50 per cent chance of survival, but I pulled through. I was diagnosed with ARVC, or arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare disease of the heart muscle. It’s an inherited condition, although tests on my parents, Emma and Mark, found no trace of ARVC. I’m fitted with an implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (ICD), which gives my heart electric shocks if its rhythm becomes irregular. I’ve had a couple of scares when it’s gone off, ending up in hospital. I’ll need medication for the rest of my life, too. Living with an ICD is scary. At first, I wouldn’t even leave the house to see my boyfriend, Liam, 26. Now I’ll only walk short distances in case it goes off, and all exercise is out. Now, I support the British Heart Foundation to help raise awareness. I know I’m one of the lucky ones.
See bhf.org.uk for more info