I'm going to share something quite personal with you. About 5 weeks ago I had a cardiac arrest just outside of a park in Newbury. I was given CPR immediately and very luckily by a passer by and I believe I was "dead" for about 35 minutes until the fifth shock from a paramedic's defibrillator revived me. I then spent 6 days in a coma in Basingstoke and now have an implanted defibrillator in case it happens again.

History wise, I had a heart attack at 45 but have run 20 miles a week since then, walk, cycle etc and eat healthily.

Today's my 57th birthday and I'm a pretty lucky bloke to be here. Only 8 out of 100 survive a Cardiac Arrest out of hospital.

I'm making a fantastic recovery & thanks to brilliant CPR the oxygen flowed through my body for that 1/2 hour so no after effects at all. No organ damage.

Worth watching the video if you don't know how to do it. One day you might save someone's life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXPo7lNYzk

Yay! Well done, you beat the reaper. Now as a fellow survivor I can recommend taking it easy for a bit, less stress, don't follow hopeless causes. Vote Tory and get BREXIT done 🤣

Seriously take it one day at a time, enjoy each and every moment, take more care of yourself and your family and live life to its fullest. You were very, very lucky. Take care.

Cheers. You survived a cardiac arrest?

Wow..sounds like you were very lucky. Take it easy fella and don't worry about stuff. Its really not worth it. I am 51 and went in for a full MOT in January as I was getting palpitations. Heart was fine but they diagnosed other issues. We are all here for a very short time and although we all think we know best, we really are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things (apart from to family members)..take care.

We’re pretty insignificant. And when we’re gone, we’re gone.

The weird thing is I remember nothing at all of that day. I also had delerium for a couple of days after ICU and although I remember little, I know that my behaviour was very unpleasant. Despite my persona on here, I am generally extremely polite (except with annoying customers) and I’m embarrassed when I’m told of things I said and did.

But yes, I’m very lucky to still be here. And completely intact. No lasting damage at all.

I hope the “other stuff” diagnosed was nothing serious.

Nothing that couldn't be fixed by me taking more care of myself. Sometimes we forget we are 50 something and still think of us as young men... I'm not overweight but did hit the bottle a bit after my Mum passed last year...nothing serious but was using it to sleep.

No arrest, just a community order.🤣 Had pains in chest just kept getting worse all the time, eventually had to leave the room in the middle of a meet. Got bluelighted in to the resuscitation room and avoided an arrest. A long and protracted recovery back to about eighty percent full health, couple of ops to tackle the damage.

Ah. I had a stent 10 years ago when I had the heart attack. My general health was better as a result because I started to exercise with a vengeance.

Slippery slope though isn’t it? Alcohol. I’ve not had a drink for over 8 years. Smoking’s the other thing that’s nasty.

Complete agreement on that one. Smoking is bad from day one but drink tends to creep up on you as it is originally used as a social interaction with your friends, but it can then become a crutch in times of distress.
Then of course there is the so called 'junk' food which, in moderation is reasonably benign, but those mars bars look very appealing .

So after living on lettuce and green tea one gets hit by a bus, or worse end up in a home with dementia.

I wish you a speedy recovery, and though we may sit on opposing sides of the political table, that is of complete irrelevance when it comes to health.

Alcohol, tobacco and meat. All very bad for you and usually all things you do when you're young. They should make alcohol as socially unacceptable as smoking is now.

Actually I'm making a determined effort to reduce meat consumption.

That's good, stay away from junk food. How are you feeling now?

'Hungry'