CPR on fan brings it all back for Ginola
THE memories came flooding back for David Ginola yesterday when a Newcastle fan required urgent medical assistance with a defibrillator after taking ill. Ginola, once of Tottenham and Newcastle, was clinically dead after he collapsed at a charity game in France in May 2016. His life was saved by friend and fellow footballer Frederic Mendy, who administered CPR. Ginola has since recovered from a quadruple heart bypass. ‘It brings back very weird memories,’ admitted the Sky Sports pundit. ‘The defibrillator helps massively. People in the stands being able to perform CPR helps massively. ‘It is obviously a very strange experience. Hopefully he or she will be fine, but it’s important to make the point that everyone needs to know CPR. The method is to perform CPR straightaway, while waiting for the people to arrive with the defibrillator. ‘This is what saved my life. They did it for 12 minutes and I was dead for 12 minutes. It’s very important because otherwise the brain will be damaged. ‘Sometimes people don’t want to hurt you too much but you need to go very deep, it doesn’t matter if you break ribs. ‘There are hundreds and thousands of people dying from sudden death. We need to improve our knowledge about it, being able to treat people. ‘It’s lucky he’s surrounded by a lot of people. If anything happened like that at home without anyone around it would be a major problem.’ Former England midfielder Kieron Dyer, also a guest on Sky, revealed that coaching badges insist on learning CPR.