A Christchurch club cricketer is lucky to be alive after suffering a major cardiac arrest at a training session earlier this year at his home ground, Elmwood Park.
David Wakefield, 26, of Old Boys’ Collegian was partaking in a team fitness session, when he collapsed. His heart stopped, and didn’t restart for 26 minutes.
“At first we thought he was taking this mickey (to get out of sprints),” his teammate Adam Hastilow said.
They soon discovered it was in fact serious, when Wakefield was lying face down on the ground – gasping for air.
“His breathe was irregular... and their were noises coming from him. It wasn’t a normal reaction to fitness training,” said another team mate Scott Willoughby.
What happened next arguably saved his life. While Hastilow and Willoughby gave CPR, another teammate ran to the nearby Z Petrol Station in Bryndwr, where they found a defibrillator using the AED locator app.
While Wakefield has little recollection of what happened on the evening of March 11, he is eternally grateful for his friends quick thinking, first-aid and the quick response of emergency services – who all arrived just seven minutes after the call was made, in peak Christchurch traffic.
“There’s no denying, they’re (teammates and first responders) are the reason I am still here,” Wakefield said.
It took six shocks of the defibrillator to kick start Wakefield’s heart. He was then rushed to Christchurch Hospital where he spent three days in a coma, in a bid to reduce the swelling of his brain.
Given he’d had no oxygen to the brain for 26 minutes, his family and friends were told to prepare for the worst.
“The nurses and doctors were scared at what the outcome would be if I did come out the coma, put it that way,” he said.
After 72 hours in a deep coma, Wakefield finally woke. But his challenges were far from over – he had to follow an extensive rehabilitation programme to eat, walk and talk again. He spent two months in hospital.
He also now has an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted in his chest.
Wakefield’s incident not only came as shock to his friends, family and team mates – but the wider New Zealand cricketing community.
It’s why New Zealand Cricket’s encouraging clubs to join their Community Heart Programme, where clubs can register themselves online, set a fundraising goal for an AED device and purchase one through crowdfunding.
NZC’s head of community cricket, Kent Stead, says they’ve been overwhelmed by generous Kiwis who often don’t have links to specific clubs, but are keen to get more defibrillators in and around their communities.
“It may not be a player, it may be a supporter, it may be someone walking their dog at the park but by having the device at the club they can do their bit to make their communities that much safer,” Stead said.
OBC has since gone out and purchased their own device, and offered to put their club members through first aid training.
As for Wakefield, remarkably he’s made a near full recovery and will pad up for Old Boys’ again this season.
His teammates say it’s a testament to the work he’s put into his rehab.
“For one, it’s remarkable that he’s here and two, how he’s recovered to the extent he has,” Hastilow said.
Wakefield’s approach going forward is simple: don’t snick off first ball!
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