THIS is the horrifying moment air ambulance medics desperately tried to save a rugby player’s life after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch.
The routine rugby session took a terrible turn as 48-year-old coach Lee Garside collapsed.
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew rushed to save him after his teammates called 999 from the scene.
They said over the phone before the ambulance arrived: “He’s collapsed, and he’s passed out…I’m doing CPR on him right now as we’re talking.”
Luckily, paramedics arrived in a rapid response vehicle in just four minutes.
Updating them on the situation, Lee’s teammates said: “‘He’s been in and out of consciousness, and (his) breathing keeps stopping.”
The air ambulance crew were filmed doing five shocks with the defibrillator, and spending ten minutes trying to revive Lee through CPR.
Eventually they succeeded.
The harrowing scene is captured on the sixth episode of Yorkshire Air 999, which airs on Friday 7 February at 9pm on Really.
As they took Lee to hospital, the paramedics warned that he wasn’t “out of the woods,” adding: “He’s had a really serious event and it’s still ongoing at that point. Patients will re-arrest on you, so I’m mindful of that with Lee on this occasion.”
Just before they arrived at the hospital, Lee started seizing, with crew believing it was down to lack of oxygen to his brain during the cardiac arrest.
Luckily for Lee, hospital staff were waiting for him and he was fitted with an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator).
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Prince William is taking to the skies in a new helicopter donated to the London Air Ambulance Charity at RAF Northolt” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6362706935112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Just eight weeks later, Lee experienced another cardiac arrest while watching TV.
Speaking about it after recovering, he said: “My heart started going to one side, and it just gave me a massive, massive kick.”
On the show, Lee gets emotional as he thanks everyone for their life-saving efforts.
He added: “Without them guys I probably wouldn’t have been here today.”
