LIFESAVERS
When Abercwmboi footballer Stephen Thomas suffered a cardiac arrest in the middle of a match in Aberdare, four bystanders gave him CPR... and probably saved his life
A DAD-OF-TWO was taken to hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest during a weekday football match.
Stephen Thomas, fondly known as ‘Bogey’ to his teammates, was playing for his beloved Abercwmboi FC on Wednesday, September 7 when he collapsed on the field.
The 31-year-old striker had just scored for the Aberdare Valley League side against Ynys View when he began to feel unwell and then lost consciousness.
But thanks to four heroic members of the public, who performed CPR and used a defibrillator to try and shock him back to life, the Fernhill resident survived and is now recovering in hospital.
“A few minutes before it all happened he’d scored a cracking goal, right in the top corner,” said Abercwmboi FC manager and close friend Anthony Jenkins.
“Then when we kicked off again I shouted at him to make a diagonal run, but he said ‘ calm down, I’m tired’.
“He asked for a bottle of water, then in a matter of seconds the boy up front with him was screaming. Stephen had just keeled over. Nobody could believe it.
“He’s never had any health problems in the past and he’s always been a very quick and fit guy.”
Within seconds of Stephen collapsing on the Ynys playing fields in Aberdare, four members of the public – Lee Winterburn, Samantha Avon, Toni Lee Phillips and Lee Williams – came to his aid.
The four worked as a team to give the amateur footballer CPR and use a defibrillator from the newly revamped Sobell Leisure Centre before the ambulance crews could arrive.
“They lost him about four times,” said Anthony, who has known Stephen since he was a promising young Cardiff City FC youth player.
“They worked and worked on him. If those four weren’t there then I don’t think he would be here today.
“He was also very lucky that it was a midweek game at the sports centre which had a defibrillator.
“We were the only game to go ahead so there were people around to see it happen. If it had been a Saturday at our normal ground I don’t know what might have happened.”
The Welsh Ambulance Service took Stephen to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff where they discovered a leak in one of the valves in his heart.
He underwent an operation to correct the problem on Friday, September 30.
“I was a real eye-opener,” added Anthony, reflecting on the terrifying incident.
“Even though we’re only a pub team we’re going to try and get everyone’s heart screened and get some of us on a first aid course.”
A week after the incident, Lee Winterburn, Samantha Avon, Toni Lee Phillips and Lee Williams were all given flowers by the club as a token of their appreciation.
Anthony added: “We’re taking a bus down to see him in hospital on Friday. It’s a 16-seater and it’s going to be full.”
A JustGiving page has been set up for Stephen, known as the comedian of the squad, in a bid to raise hundreds of pounds.
To donate please go to www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/Bogey