Man 'brought back to life' after football pitch collapse as opposition steps in
A man whose heart stopped for 28 minutes while playing football was saved by a nurse on the opposition team.
John Harkin, 35, was playing for Old Xaverians FC against Larkin FC at Barnham Drive in Childwall on March 18 when he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was kept alive by an opposition player and a heart specialist, who happened to be passing the playing fields.
His heart stopped for 28 minutes but was revived with the help of a defibrillator at the side of the pitch and taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in an ambulance. John, an English teacher at Maricourt High School in Maghull, almost died in hospital and spent a week in intensive care.
John, originally from Allerton and now living in Melling, told the ECHO : "I don't remember much from it. I didn't remember any of the day whatsoever and then a little bit has come back to me.
"I had been to Costa Coffee for breakfast with my girlfriend. Everything was normal.
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He says he doesn't remember much from the incident (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)"She said that I dropped her off and I was rushing to go and pick a teammate up. I don't remember anything of the incident, but my friends said that about 15 or 20 minutes into the game, I was playing up front and I just went down with nobody near me.
"People ran over and originally I think they were wondering if I was diabetic and if I went into a fit. I'm not and I hadn't had a knock.
"It turned out to be a cardiac arrest. Thankfully there was a nurse on the other team and he realised what was happening straight away and he started doing CPR.
"There was also a heart specialist driving past. He came over and helped.
"I had basically died and was brought back. Eventually I think there was an air ambulance there but I think it was too risky to transfer me in the air ambulance so they put me in the normal ambulance and carted me off to the Royal."
John's family rushed to Childwall when they heard about the incident. His girlfriend Lauren Peacock was at Cheshire Oaks, while his mum and sister were in Wales. As such, his uncle was the first of his family to make it to the scene.
He saw John not breathing on the pitch before he was revived and taken to the Royal, where matters almost became much worse.
He suffered a heart attack on the football field (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)John explained: "They got me stable but then on the Saturday night they called my family back in because it looked like my organs were going to fail. They said 'this looks like it could be it, say your goodbyes'.
"When I stabilised after that, the question was then what condition I would wake up in. I could've been paralysed or needing to learn to walk again.
"When I woke up and asked what happened, I think my second question was 'did I score?' and then after that, they thought I was alright."
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John added: "I woke up and came around, the first people that I saw were my sister and my girlfriend. I asked what had happened and they said I had a heart issue during a football game, everything was fine and I was on the mend now.
"I wasn't even that surprised. Even though I couldn't remember anything, I thought 'great, I'll get on with it, fine.'
"When I came round again a couple of days later, I heard the doctors outside my room and I heard them say 'this is John Harkin, he's 35, his heart stopped for 28 minutes and he had to get shocked three times'. I was thinking 'is there another John Harkin on this ward?'. I couldn't believe it."
The Royal Liverpool Hospital (LIVERPOOL ECHO)John spent weeks in the Royal before being moved to Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital to have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted. He has been home for around two weeks and has been building up his strength.
The game between Old Xaverians and Larkin was called off after the medical emergency. John was able to go to the rearranged fixture after being discharged from hospital and thanked the opposition player, called Alex, for saving his life.
He said: "It's a traumatic experience for everyone. It's more traumatic for the people around you because they see everything that's happening.
"I didn't want everyone to have that memory in their mind. I turned up at the replayed game and I went into their changing room afterwards and had a nice moment where I shook his hand and said thanks very much because he saved my life.
"It's a funny thing to say to someone, but he did. Without him, I was in big trouble. It was a nice moment."
John credits the help of people around him for his recovery.
He said: "The support of everyone around me - my girlfriend has been unbelievable and has to be unbelievable because she has to put up with me in the house now. Family, friends, the kids at school, teammates and the football club - just a big thank you to all of them.
"A big thank you to the nurse, who saved my life. That football team was brilliant."
He added: "It's nice to have that support network. It makes you realise how lucky you are to have built such a lovely network around you, they've all been fantastic.
"When you're sitting in that hospital, it's about that support and who pushes you on to get better."
His ambition now is to return to the football pitch. He has been easing back into exercise and went on a walk in the Lake District with Lauren on Monday, but wants to take steps to get better.
He said: "I'm feeling tired. I think that's the biggest thing. I've been home for a couple of weeks.
I was told my heart is at 35% capacity (healthy is between 55% and 70%). So that makes things like walking around, getting up the stairs quite difficult at the start.
"But I'm quite a determined fella. I'm on the mend, I was in the Lake District yesterday, we did a walk. You want to push yourself through and get back to normal.
"I'm tired and fatigued but overall I think I have more of a sense of determination to get back to normal."
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