Family devastated after cardiac arrest kills mum at just 35
ADEVASTATED husband has paid tribute to his wife and mother of two young children, who died suddenly of a cardiac arrest aged 35.
Gemma O’Shea, who had a heart condition, died suddenly on May 11 after her in-person routine appointments were cancelled due to coronavirus.
Husband Lee O’Shea described her as a “fantastic mum” to their sons Finley, three, and Mason, eight.
Lee said Gemma’s death had come as a shock to the whole family as she seemed “the fittest she had ever been”.
Gemma had a heart condition which meant she had a leaking valve on her heart. She would usually go into hospital for a routine check-up every six to 12 months but these were being done virtually at the time of her death due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On the day she died, the family were visiting Lee’s mother in Barry. While there, she collapsed in the garden. Lee performed CPR on his wife but sadly she could not be saved.
“The woman next door said, ‘You better come round here, she’s collapsed’. And as I walked around then I saw Gemma on the floor just lying there. Basically that was it – she had had a cardiac arrest.
“I worked on her for a while, it was a while before the ambulance got there, but sadly she passed away. The boys saw it all because unfortunately they were with me.
“She had a cardiac arrest because of a leaking valve on her heart. Every six months to a year she would go into hospital and have a thorough check up – an ECG, etc – but because of Covid this wasn’t happening. Everything was being done over the phone.
“At the time she was fine – or so we thought. It was probably the fittest she’s ever been – she was walking, getting really into fitness. Perhaps she was doing too much exercise. Whether that played a part against her, who knows.
“Looking back, she said she had a headache but then again she did suffer with migraines. You look back and you pinpoint everything. I remember on that day thinking she was quiet and she was looking tired, but you wouldn’t know because you wouldn’t expect anything like that.
“She had a leaking valve or chamber on her heart and eventually she probably would have had to have an operation on it, but it was always monitored by the hospital. The problem was because she hadn’t been in the valve had become twice as bad, but none of us would have known.
“It’s the thing where Covid strikes again but because she couldn’t go to the hospital to get the check-up she needed. It worked out that, yes, had she gone in they would have caught it but with Covid and catching [the virus] in the hospital, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Lee says that while Finley is too young to understand what has hap
pened fully, Mason has started to feel the loss.
“It’s up and down,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you have to somehow try and get on. I have to try and be as normal to be an example for them. I promised her I’d do it for the boys and I think it would be harder if I didn’t have them. They give me a reason to get up every day.”
He said: “She was a family woman. She loved a glass of prosecco with her friends. She was outgoing – if she went out she would be last on the dancefloor. She was a fantastic mum and wife and a proper family person. She was dedicated to her work – a complete family mum. She was very close to her mum Claire, dad Keith, and two brothers Sam and Nathan.”
Gemma worked at MotoNovo finance in Cardiff at the time of her death. Lee says the company has been “amazing”.
“It just goes to show how popular and well-liked she was and it’s just amazing to see and to read the messages,” said Lee. “The comments, even from people I don’t know or have even heard from, it just shows the generosity of people out there.”
Lee says that he now wants to raise awareness of what happened to
Gemma to make sure no other families are affected in the same way. He also is urging people to consider learning CPR or how to use a defibrillator.
He said:“It’s just so important that people do get checked and do learn
how to do CPR because you just never know. I worked on her for a bit but in the end I do think she needed a defib so it’s great that more of them are coming. You’ve got to give yourselves that extra chance before the ambulances get there.”