A FIT and healthy mum-of-two suffered 10 cardiac arrests in one day after swimming 20 lengths and building flat pack drawers.
Tina Hughes, 51, has her children – and fast-acting medics – to thank for her life after her heart stopped suddenly during the night.
But just hours after her swim, afternoon tea with her mother and building her furniture, Tina was fighting for her life.
But in the middle of the night her daughter Rachel, then 16, woke up after hearing a noise coming from the bathroom. She rushed to the toilet and found her mum lying on the floor. Second later she lost consciousness and began making a rasping sound.
She raced through to wake her brother Stephen, 22, who put his mum in the recovery position and dialled 999.
Paramedics performed CPR in the ambulance and she was taken to the Victoria Infirmary.
But after Tina was admitted to hospital she suffered another NINE cardiac arrests.
Doctors don't know what caused Tina's heart to stop without warning and so many times.
Tina, a civil servant from Clarkston, said: "I know I'm lucky to be alive. If my daughter hadn't woken up, my children would have found me dead in the morning.
"It's a terrible thought.
"I’m a fit and healthy person. I do yoga, swimming, walk my dog. It came as a total shock to our family as there are no heart problems."
Tina says she felt completely fine the day before her heart stopped on April 20th this year.
She said: "The day it happened I had swum 20 lengths of my local pool, I’d gone to New Lanark for afternoon tea with mum and I’d built a set of drawers from Ikea.
"I went to bed feeling fine but I woke up at 4am in the morning and felt dizzy.
"I got up to the toilet and was very sick and then I passed out. That's the last thing I remember."
Rachel, 17, said: "I woke up and heard a strange noise. It's hard to describe it. I called out to my mum and she didn't call back.
"I ran through to the bathroom and she was talking to me but second later she just collapsed. I could hear a rasping sound coming from her.
"I panicked and didn't know what to do so I ran through and got my brother.
"We just sat with her and called an ambulance. We didn't know it was her heart, they thought it might be food poisoning.
"It was really frightening because it was so sudden."
Tina said: "My son works for McDonalds and they are very good with first aid training. He knew to put me in a safe position."
Tina was given CPR in the ambulance but then suffered a further 9 cardiac arrests in hospital.
She said: "The one memory I have is when I came round in hospital. I heard a voice saying, 'Tina, we are trying to help you."
"I remember telling them to stop hurting me. They had been using the defibrillator pads so much it was really painful.
"I remember him saying, 'This woman is in cardiac arrest.'
"That was the first time I had heart it. It was really frightening."
A cardiac arrest happens when your heart stops pumping blood around your body.
The most common cause of a cardiac arrest is a life threatening abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF).
Although a heart attack can lead to a cardiac arrest, they are not the same thing.
Tina was fitted with a pacemaker, which uses low-energy electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate.
She said: "My heart will never stop again but I would like to see defibrillators in every public place."
Tina says she found the support offered by the British Heart Foundation "invaluable" while she was recovering and is taking part in a fund-raising 5k with her daughter later this month to say thank-you.
The Glasgow Winter Warmer is taking place in Pollok Park on Sunday November 15 at 11am. There is a choice of a 5k or 10k event and it costs £15 or adults and £5 for children.
Sign up for the Glasgow Winter Warmer at bhf.org.uk/glasgow
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