Former M¯aori AB relives cardiac trauma
Former professional rugby player Hoani Macdonald never played again after he suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest during a provincial semifinal in 2012.
The sight of Denmark football star Christian Eriksen collapsing during the Euro 2020 game against Finland last weekend stunned the sporting world. For New Zealand rugby fans it also rekindled memories of the day Southland lock Macdonald, who was 34 at the time, lost consciousness against CountiesManukau in Pukekohe.
Doctors performed 13 minutes of CPR and used a defibrillator on Erikson after his cardiac arrest in Copenhagen, and the midfielder has since said from hospital that he wants to understand what happened and that he ‘‘won’t give up’’.
Macdonald, who describes himself as being ‘‘very competitive’’, was told by doctors his rugby days were numbered when he came out of an induced coma at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland almost nine years ago.
‘‘The chances weren’t great of me surviving overnight, so that was pretty terrifying.’’ Hoani MacDonald
The former Ma¯ori All Blacks, Highlanders and Southland lock had to have an implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (ICD), a small batterypowered electrical impulse generator, inserted into his chest after suffering cardiac arrest and then had to get his sporting fix by participating in non-contact sports such as basketball and touch.
Now, 42, Macdonald said he had learned to blunt his competitive edge to ensure there is no need for the defibrillator to control his heartrate when it starts beating too quickly.
‘‘As I have got older I have learned to let things go a little bit more,’’ Macdonald said. ‘‘When it first happened it was quite hard. But I just had to pull my head in, really.
‘‘If some things are going a bit fast, I just sub-off or slow down. It is quite hard.’’
Like many sports fans around the world, Macdonald, who recently moved to Blenheim from Japan where he had been on the coaching staff of the Honda Heat club, saw the dramatic images of Eriksen being attended to by medical staff following his collapse.
Macdonald hasn’t watched any footage of the moment he fell to the turf and passed out while running to a lineout during the semifinal in 2012. Spectators at the ground and watching on TV watched as Southland’s team doctor Peter Finlayson, among others, rushed to Macdonald’s aid before he was stretched from the field and then went into cardiac arrest; a defibrillator was used to revive him after CPR and a shot of adrenaline failed to bring back a pulse.
The game continued about 30 metres away from where medical staff tried to save Macdonald’s life. After around 20 minutes he was stabilised and taken to hospital, where he was put in an induced coma.
His partner, Michelle, was in Invercargill and had to wait overnight before travelling north with their two children to visit him.
‘‘She couldn’t make it up until the next day,’’ Macdonald said. ‘‘The chances weren’t great of me surviving overnight, so that was pretty terrifying really when you think about it.’’
Having ICD inside the skin in his chest ‘‘keeps an eye on things’’, he said. There have been two incidents when the defibrillator has had to get his heart-rate under control. Both were after sports events.
‘‘Your heart kind of gets a jolt and re-sets, pretty much,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s it in layman terms. It is kind of like someone had punched you right in the chest.’’