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Successful Outcomes

This section of the website will provide information on successful outcomes of resuscitation and family screening.

Codicote mum hopes to raise awareness of rare heart condition

Sudden Cardiac Arrest: A Survivor Story

Clive Clarke's Story

 Eleanor's Story

Eleanor Kelly is a young 21 year old  3rd year student of Holistic Health Studies She plays Camogie and Gaelic football for her local clubs. She socialises at the week-ends with her many friends .......21st birthday parties keep coming up not to mention the 50th s etc of her extended family! Oh and house-warming parties of her older sister and her friends!She has also held down a part-time job in the office of a fashion retail outlet for the past three years.The only real difference between Eleanor and her peers is that she has an Implantable Cardiovertor DefibrillaterEleanor was diagnosed by Dr Joe Galvin in Connolly Memorial Hospital Blanchardstown as having Long QT Syndrome through family screening following the sudden death of her older brother at age 21.Her ECGs sometimes showed a prolongation of the QT interval but not always. Eleanor had never had any of the symptoms sometimes indicative of this condition which in retrospect her brother had ie sudden fainting, dizziness and palpitations.However six months after her ICD was implanted it shocked her when her phone went off while she was sleeping. On genetic testing she was found to have two gene mutations for LQTS one of which is known to be triggered by auditory startle.She prefers to use her alarm to wake her in the morning and her mother is happy with that as she doesn’t want to be responsible for triggering a shock. Eleanor and her family know now that she is safe and that the worst thing that can happen through this condition is that she may have an uncomfortable shock. They can all live with that!!

Nóirin's Story 

“Prior to the cardiac arrest I was doing everything a normal 18 year old would do,” Nóirin says. “I was a very active child, although I did tend to faint if I was standing for too long at one time in a heated room, say for a spelling test or when serving Mass. Because other members of my family often fainted too it wasn’t worried about too much as it hadn’t affected them in any adverse way.  The cardiac arrest when I was eighteen then came as a huge shock to everyone. I remember having a shower and walking the quarter mile to Pembroke Beauty College in Limerick that morning but I can’t remember anything for a week and a half after that. I was doing the exam and the other girls in class just saw me fall off the chair onto the floor.  Some thought that I had just fainted but a girl in my class were able to diagnose that it wasn’t just a simple faint. She was a year older and had first aid training and did CPR on me straight away. She kept the CPR with the help of another girl doing the counting outloud so she could concentrate on trying to save me, she kept going until the ambulance arrived twenty minutes later and that’s what kept me alive.It was a miracle that those girls were in the same room as me because no one else in the college knew what to do in that situation. That’s why I think the CPR for schools is an excellent initiative. I wouldn’t be here today only those girls knew how to help me. It was a very difficult time for my parents. They were told to prepare themselves for the worst and there was a constant vigil by my bedside.I was told that the condition that half caused the cardiac arrest was neurocardiogenic syncope. Doctors believe the condition was there from birth.I have just one memory from the hospital in Limerick.  My brother got the first flight home when he heard what happened and I can remember putting my hand on his face and feeling his beard – that’s all.In hospital I had to learn to walk, talk and eat again as my whole body had shut down.  I used a notepad to communicate until my speech came back.  My speech had returned by the time when I was leaving the hospital in Cork.I was sent to Cork University Hospital to get my ICD fitted – an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. It’s a small box located under my left shoulder.  It’s able to detect if my heart is going too fast or too slowly and it paces it accordingly.  If the occasion arose where it needed to give me a shock to keep me alive it would do it. I was in hospital for 15 days altogether. Now I get the ICD checked every three months and I’m on low-level medication - a beta blocker. I went back to the beauty therapy course part time but I am now a librarian.I tell my story because I feel so passionate about the importance of learning CPR.  It saved my life and it can save many other lives as well. Through the Irish Heart Foundation I was invited to be part of the CPR 4 Schools committee. Locally, I’ve visited three schools in Ballinsloe and early on I talked to my local school in Borrisokane. There are 125 students trained in CPR there already and 8 staff trained in AED.  They are on their way to being a ‘Heart Safe’ school so they are being very pro-active. I believe everything happens for a reason. I think I was saved for a reason and I hope this is the reason - to help other people train to save lives. Nobody can say that it’ll never happen to them.  It can.  I’m proof of that.”