Mum suffers cardiac arrest after thinking feeling was 'something or nothing'

A woman who felt uncomfortable on a plane keeled over and collapsed after worrying it could be "something or nothing".

Alice Mogford has shared her story of how she experienced a sudden cardiac arrest just as she landed at Cardiff airport following a family holiday, after learning the true extent of how terrible it could have been.

The 48-year-old mum and grandmother had visited family in her native Belfast with her husband, daughter and granddaughter before making the trip back home to Cardiff. After experiencing some discomfort on the plane, Alice collapsed while waiting in the arrivals hall and stopped breathing.

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Thanks to quick-thinking airport staff, who administered CPR and shocked Alice with a defibrillator prior to the arrival of the Welsh Ambulance Service, Alice is alive to tell the tale.

She said: "I'd like to relay my sincere thanks to everyone involved in saving my life. I know now that the survival rate for cardiac arrests is really low, so I guess I was in the right place at the right time. They deserve all the praise in the world."

When ambulance crews arrived, they provided advanced life support and took Alice to hospital where she underwent surgery and spent six weeks in recovery.

Talking about that day, Alice, an office manager, said: "I've got no recollection of what happened, but apparently, I was complaining of chest pain on the flight. The next thing I know I was waking up in hospital feeling hazy. I still don't think I've really processed what happened."

Alice's husband Neil, 60, added: "Alice had a bit of discomfort on the plane, but we thought it was something or nothing. Then as we got off the plane and were walking through the terminal building, she just keeled over backwards. Thankfully, she had a rucksack on which cushioned her fall, otherwise she could have had a serious head injury too."

Alice's experience of survival goes to show just how important CPR and the availability of defibrilators are. On-site first aiders were able to begin the "chain of survival" with chest compressions, and they also delivered three shocks with a defibrillator, all while being guided through the process by aircraft dispatcher, Chloe Hobbs.

By chance, Chloe had completed her Community Welfare Responder (CWR) training with the Welsh Ambulance Service a month prior. CWRs are trained to attend appropriate 999 calls in their community and take a set of observations to help clinicians in the ambulance control room decide the appropriate next steps.

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Chloe said: "It was all very out of the blue. The last of the passengers had just disembarked the plane so I radioed up to my colleagues in the terminal building. The next minute, I heard a scream, so I ran into the arrivals hall and saw Alice on the floor.

"Neil and I put her in the recovery position and tried to make sure her airways were clear, and our on-site first aiders arrived after a couple of minutes. Alice's condition deteriorated rapidly, and as the airport fire section arrived, she stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest.

"The fast response from the airport first responders allowed them to start chest compressions immediately, and within 40 seconds a defibrillator was attached, which was a vital part of Alice's survival. Seeing everyone working together to give Alice the best possible care was truly amazing."

Welsh Ambulance Service call handler Julia Donaldson took the 999 call, while urgent care assistants Lance Davies and Danielle Prince were the first to arrive. They were backed up by Cymru high acuity response unit paramedic Vickie Duance, senior paramedics Laura Deabreu and William Moore, and emergency medical technician Owen Thomas. Advanced critical care support was delivered by the emergency medical retrieval and transfer service Cymru, highly skilled consultants and critical care practitioners who work on board Wales Air Ambulance charity helicopters and cars.

Alice was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, and later Swansea's Morriston Hospital, where she was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a battery-powered device which detects irregular heartbeats and delivers electric shocks to restore a regular heart rhythm.

After a six week-stay in hospital, she is now recovering at home and is encouraging the public to learn CPR. Alice said: "I get how the general public would 'freeze' in that situation, but having lived through this first-hand, my message is that you can't possibly do more damage, so give CPR a go."

Neil added: "A defibrillator will literally tell you what to do, so even if you've never used one before, you just follow the voice prompts."

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