FAMILY’S SHOCK AT LOSS OF ‘GENTLE SOUL’
A DADOFTHREE described as “a gentle soul” has died at the age of 35 following a sudden brain haemorrhage.
Luke Price was found unconscious at his Carmarthenshire home by his 10-year-old son Jenson, who called 999 and even started administering his own chest compressions.
His wife Carly Price, who had been in work, then dashed home when she found out what had happened to take over the CPR before a neighbour and the emergency services arrived.
Despite being taken to the intensive care unit at Morriston Hospital in
Swansea, medics said there was nothing more they could do for Luke and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards on April 10. His devastated family are now aiming to raise money for staff at Wales Air Ambulance, who were also quickly on the scene at the time, and Morriston’s intensive care unit.
“It felt like I was in a nightmare. Luke was fit and healthy. It was something that came completely out of the blue,” said Carly, 34.
“He was such a gentle person. Nobody had a bad word to say about him. Everybody liked him.
“He was a jokey person. I used to call him my ‘little nerd’ because he loved playing World of Warcraft online.”
Carly, who works at the car dealership Ron Skinner and Sons in Cross Hands, said April 10 started completely normally for the young family.
She recalled: “I had gone to work that morning ready to open up the site. He was with the children as it was half-term. Everything had been fine – we had been chatting about what we were going to do that evening when I came home.
“Then all of a sudden, my eldest son Jenson was ringing me in work. He said ‘Mam, you’ve got to come home, something has happened to Dad.’
“By the time I got back from work, which took about 15 minutes, Jenson had phoned for an ambulance and was doing chest compressions on him when I walked through the door.
“I then took over, and then my neighbour came and continued it for me because I physically couldn’t do it. I felt too weak and as if I wasn’t doing it properly.”
Carly said a police officer, the fire service, Wales Air Ambulance and the Welsh Ambulance Service all turned up at their home in Foelgastell, near Cefneithin, to help before Luke was lifted downstairs and taken to hospital.
In Morriston ICU, scans of Luke’s brain confirmed that he had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage, an uncommon type of stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain.
It is thought that Luke,
“
The consultant told me he was born with something on his brain. It was not a case of ‘if’ it would happen, but ‘when’. It was like a little time bomb waiting to go off Carly Price
who has two other children with Carly called Myles, nine, and Aria, five, had an undetected birth defect which put him at very high risk of the fatal attack.
“The consultant told me he was born with something on his brain. It was not a case of ‘if’ it would happen but ‘when.’ It was like a little time bomb waiting to go off,” Carly explained. “Doctors said he would have felt a sharp pain in his head and that would have been it – like a light switch going off.
“My son kept his heart beating but his brain had been starved of too much oxygen.”
Carly, who had been with Luke for 12 years and married to him for nearly four years, heaped praise on the emergency services for the dignified way they cared for her husband in his final moments.
“The amount of care they gave Luke was completely outstanding,” she said. “The staff at the hospital looked devastated telling me there was nothing they could do for him.
“The hospital were brilliant with me. When we switched his life support off they let me stay with him for an hour so I could say goodbye.”
Within just a few days of her setting up the Gofundme page more than £2,000 has been raised for Wales Air Ambulance and Morriston Hospital ICU.
Carly added: “I’m absolutely gobsmacked that it’s got that high already. The Wales Air Ambulance in particular need that money as they have very little help from the government. They appreciate every little donation in order to keep going, and they deserve that and more.”
Due to Covid restrictions, only a small amount of people were allowed at Luke’s funeral.
Carly added: “A lot of people loved him and wanted to say goodbye but couldn’t as they weren’t allowed into the crematorium.”