22 February 2024 , 15:12
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A dad who had a heart attack in his sleep was saved by his brave children who gave him CPR - even after he made a 'death rattle'.
Michael Welsh, 55, was an otherwise fit and healthy person when he began feeling weird flutters in his chest. After seeking medical advice he was prescribed a series of beta blockers but his heart flutter worsened. He suspected he had just fallen ill, as daughter Rachel, 23, had thrown a Hogmanay party just days before.
At about 7am, his wife Alison woke up to hear Michael making a bizarre noise. His face was turning blue and he had a strange look in his eyes. She screamed for help and their grown-up children, Rachel and Christopher, rushed in. They both had both undergone CPR training through their jobs and began performing the life-saving treatment on Michael immediately, while wife Alison phoned 999.
A year later, Michael is doing fine and says he is really proud of what his family did that night to save him. Michael, from Dundee, said: "I've been fit and healthy all my life, but I started feeling a bit strange what I now know was this ventricular fibrillation. It was kind of like a flutter in my chest, which was very weird, because I'd never had any problems with my heart.
"I eventually got some beta blockers from the hospital. I didn't feel well at Christmas the flutters in my heart had started again, even though the beta blockers had helped marginally. Over a period of about a week, I got worse and worse, but I thought it was just a virus."
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"On January 2, I woke up early in the morning and thought it was happening quite a lot. But my daughter had had a party on Hogmanay, and folk had left really late, so I thought I was just tired. I took another tablet and went back to sleep which is probably the worst thing I could have done in retrospect."
Christopher with his girlfriend Chloe and his sister Rachel (British Heart Foundation/SWNS)"My body was obviously telling me something it was every five minutes that these flutters were happening. It was around seven in the morning and my wife woke up because she heard me making noises she thought I was snoring and gave me a nudge. I kept making the noise, so she turned around and I was staring at her with lifeless eyes, and I was blue in the face.
"All my bodily functions had released it was basically the last hurrah before death, I think. She screamed for help from my son and daughter, and luckily, they knew what to do." Paramedics arrived, and used a defibrillator on Michael three times, before restarting his heart and whisking him to Ninewells Hospital, where he was fitted with an implanted defibrillator device.
Doctors were puzzled about what could have caused the heart attack but after just six weeks, Michael was given the all-clear to get back to his regular exercise. "My son thought they'd better start CPR, so my daughter gave me the kiss of life because I was very blue," said Michael.
"They had had training, my son through his work, and my daughter through her volunteering and her work. They both knew what to do. My wife phoned the ambulance while they were working on me, and I was completely out of it. I have a vague memory of something happening in the background, and someone shouting at me, but no memory of anything else."
"I believe my daughter slapped me in the face and told me not to die which was probably very helpful in her mind! Both of them worked away and luckily his girlfriend was staying with us, so she took over. Although he's a very fit young man, he had just run out of energy after a few minutes, and Chloe had to take over."
Michael's family were able to save his life through their CPR knowledge, and he hopes that his story will encourage more people to learn these skills. "I'm overwhelmingly proud - I'm overwhelmed by the way they were able to think about it," he said.
"I've spoken to people before who didn't know what to do when family members were having a cardiac arrest – and here was me with four people being able to help me. It's an overwhelming relief that they have the ability to save a life. They were also able to avoid the trauma of losing a loved one because they do like me a bit, I think!"
"It's indescribable they're great people and I really love them, and that gift was amazing. It's so important for lots of people to know what they're doing and how to help each other out. CPR can be the difference between life and death."