There are approximately 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year. Fewer than 1 in 10 survive.

On Saturday 30 December, 2023, Paul, 70, and his wife Joyce, 65, from East Cowes, Isle of Wight, head down to the yard to look after and ride their two horses every morning.

Joyce, a retired nurse and midwife of 40 years, watches on as Paul and his horse trot around the arena.

A man sat on a horse.

In the time it takes Joyce to glance down at her phone and back up again, Paul is in a heap on the floor – in agony.

He is having a cardiac arrest.

“His breathing was very irregular,” says Joyce, as her 40 years of experience come rushing back.

With no signal on her phone, Joyce quickly puts Paul in the recovery position and runs for help. But when she returns, Paul has stopped breathing and turned a “peculiar colour.” With the help of two people on the yard, Joyce begins CPR.

“I could see the colour coming back to his face, so I knew we were doing the right thing,” says Joyce.

“I was just willing everyone to get here quickly – I knew he needed defibrillation.”

Ambulance crews and a specialist paramedic from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service arrive on scene.

“I was begging for them to save him.”

But Paul isn’t responding. They shock him with the defibrillator – it’s not working. So, they shock him again. And again. And again.

Paul is shocked eight times before our team land in a nearby field – 13 in total by the time he is ready to be taken to hospital.

“When they got to seven, I started to feel very despondent,” Joyce says.

The Air Ambulance crew strap Paul onto a LUCAS: a device that provides mechanical chest compressions. They also administer advanced drugs that are only available to specialist clinicians.

After more than an hour Paul is taken to St Mary’s Hospital by road ambulance, with our crew travelling with him, before eventually moving onto Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, by ferry for emergency surgery.

The following day, while at home, Joyce’s phone rings – it’s Paul’s consultant.

“You should come over. I don’t think he’s going to make it through the night.”

When she arrives Paul is still intubated and heavily sedated. He is connected to numerous drips and surrounded by machines. But over the next week, Paul makes a remarkable recovery.

“One morning they dropped the dosage of his medication, and the next day I realised I was stood where the dialysis machine had been,” says Joyce.

After almost a month in hospital, Paul is discharged home back to Joyce and their horses. In no small part, says Joyce, ‘thanks to the chain of survival’.

“It was quick, it was witnessed and there was no time at all that he was without oxygen. Everything moved smoothly. Everybody played a part. But I felt immense relief when the helicopter came into land.

“I think everyone should know how to do CPR. You never know when it might be one of your loved one who needs it. It happened to us, and it saved Paul’s life. You will never regret it.”

“I’m very lucky,” adds Paul. “I feel like I have a debt to the Air Ambulance crew – I’d like to shake their hand.