Heart attack survivor to meet her saviour

Equestrian Chris Hobin is to meet the man who saved her life on Friday after she suffered a heart attack while on horseback.
Mrs Hobin, 62, is now improving daily in the cardiac ward of Wellington Hospital, where she was airlifted in a critical condition after collapsing from her mount during competition at the North Island Teams Event champs at Solway Showgrounds about noon on Friday.
Her husband Roger Hobin, who made a distressing trip to the capital that night alongside son Michael, said yesterday the family are eager to thank Masterton firefighter and St John volunteer Murray Pike for bringing Mrs Hobin back from death at the scene of her collapse.
Mr Pike, off-duty on Friday but whose partner was also competing, said he was leaving the showgrounds in his car when he saw people crowding about a riderless horse belonging to Mrs Hobin, which she had just been struggling to control after the animal spooked during an obstacle course event.
Mr Pike arrived at the side of Mrs Hobin to find her heart had stopped beating and, alongside an off-duty nurse, had brought her back from death with more than 20 minutes of emergency CPR and multiple defibrillator shocks given at the scene and during her transport by ambulance to Wairarapa Hospital.
Mr Hobin said he spoke yesterday with Mr Pike and has arranged for him to meet his wife on Thursday, so she can personally thank him for saving her life.
He said his wife has been an avid horse rider since first taking up the reins as a schoolgirl.
However, over the past five years she has often complained of breathlessness and three years ago had heart valve repair surgery.
Her inclusion in the Bad Boys riding team from New Plymouth was last-minute, he said, and she took up the challenge on condition she would not compete in the more strenuous phases of competition like cross-country showjumping.
"Chris will only attempt activities she thinks she can handle. She swims a kilometre three times a week to improve her fitness, which probably helped her survive the heart attack, as a matter of fact."
His wife cannot recall the incident and has lost all memory of events from Friday through to Sunday after she was placed in an induced coma in the Wellington Hospital intensive care unit over the weekend, Mr Hobin said.
"When we finally arrived in Wellington the first thing I said was 'I'm so glad to see you alive'.
"But since Monday her improvement has been marked she has her sense of humour back and keeps asking about what happened.
"She's even asked for some crosswords, so everything is even better than we could have hoped."
Mr Hobin is yet to tell his wife that her Bad Boys team finished second overall in the Masterton competition, he said, which will be welcome news.
Mrs Hobin was to undergo an angiogram yesterday to pinpoint the cause of her breathlessness and heart condition and Mr Hobin is unsure when his family will be able to return home to their New Plymouth farm.
"Chris is extremely lucky to have survived at all, and extremely lucky Murray Pike was there as well and we're all really looking forward to meeting him to thank him."