Lifesaver turns disco to heartbeats

THANK YOU: Wairarapa DHB orderly Dave Gates (left) helped save the life of Chris Brough, Whitby, after remembering how to do CPR from a YouTube clip. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Wairarapa Hospital orderly Dave Gates has saved a life at the roadside after recalling a video lesson about giving CPR to the beat of disco hit Staying Alive.

In April, Chris Brough, a fit and healthy 53-year-old from Porirua, went into sudden cardiac arrest on the way back from cycling a 30km "quick whiz" to the Paekakariki Hill Rd summit.

Cardiac arrest, which is different from a heart attack, is when the heart malfunctions and stops unexpectedly, and kills the victim within minutes if not treated.

Mr Gates performed CPR on Chris after remembering the 90-second British Heart Foundation video of Vinnie Jones dressed as a London hard man doing chest compressions on an unconscious patient to the beat of disco hit Staying Alive.

The two men met in person at Wairarapa Hospital yesterday, the first time since the accident.

"I owe my life to Dave," said Mr Brough. "There's no way you can just sit down and say 'thanks for that'."

"It's beyond what you can actually articulate in words."

The keen cyclist had turned off SH58 when he went into cardiac arrest, fell unconscious and went off his bike.

Passers-by stopped and called an ambulance when Mr Gates drove past the scene.

Mr Gates had never performed CPR before. "My first thought was 'I don't think he's breathing, just go for it'."

Remembering the video, Dave cleared Mr Brough's airway and performed CPR to the beat of Staying Alive, sung by two other passers-by, for 10 minutes, until an ambulance came.

At one point he thought he had lost him.

"I had a feeling, you had that look ... I was watching his pupils going smaller, going smaller."

He remembered seeing doctors and nurses at Wairarapa Hospital doing CPR and kept going.

"When I've watched them, they don't give up either."

When the ambulance arrived, crew used a defibrillator to get Mr Brough's heart beating again.

Mr Brough had no idea what had happened when he woke up in a haze at Wellington Hospital five days later.

It could have been a very different outcome if Dave had not done what he did or came along just five minutes later, he said.

His survival is a rare result of CPR being performed by bystanders - only eight per cent of people survive.

He said the incident was life-changing and made he and his wife rethink their priorities in life.

"I was that close, I was gone and I was brought back, I got a second chance."

Mr Brough's wife Tracy said what Dave did was amazing, especially as he was not formally trained in CPR.

"What you did Dave, is let us have Chris back as Chris. If you hadn't done that CPR right then, to the extent you did, we wouldn't have him back at all."

Mr Brough said his incident should be used as a catalyst for people to learn CPR and people shouldn't be afraid to do it.

"Obviously it works."

The video can be seen at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxjxfB4zNk