FOR a once-dead man, Lindsay Torkington was remarkable lively as he, his wife Bev, and their 14-year-old dog Jack walked into Horsham Ambulance Station to thank those who saved his life.
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On August 22, Mr Torkington suffered a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest at his Quantong home.
He was unresponsive for five minutes before paramedics revived him. He arrested again and was revived a second time.
Mr Torkington was then taken to Wimmera Base Hospital before being airlifted to Footscray Hospital.
He said that evening he felt a slight pain in his jaw followed by a chest pain, before he called Triple Zero.
“I’m very please I didn’t wait,” he said.
“The thought did cross my mind. There was no warning at all, only not particularly bad jaw pain.”
Mr Torkington said his memories of the experience were blurred.
“I remember lying on the couch, next thing I knew I was on the carpet and was awake,” he said.
“My heart started to beat faster. The beats were getting closer and closer together. I remember watching my eyesight close in and that’s it.”
While his memory might be vague, advanced life support paramedics Matt Perry and Claire Duke vividly remember the night they arrived to a gray and sweaty Mr Torkington.
“We did a 12-lead electrocardiogram of the heart, which showed he was having a significant heart attack,” Mr Perry said.
“Then Lindsay said ‘I don’t feel well’ and his heart stopped.
“He became unconscious so we popped him on the floor and performed about five minutes of CPR, Claire was compressing.
“We got the heart going again, then after about five minutes of beating by itself it stopped for a second time.”
While Matt and Claire were attempting to revive Mr Torkington, mobile intensive care ambulance paramedic Julian Cofield was on his way to the Quantong property with a clot-busting drug, pre-hospital thrombolysis.
A pilot program will see the product carried by advanced life support paramedics as well.
“Last I’d heard he’d arrested the second time,” Mr Cofield said.
“I arrived and saw Matt out the front on the phone and thought the patient had passed away – I walked in and there was Lindsay chatting away.”
Mr Perry said Mr Torkington’s survival was in part due to the 12-lead electrocardiogram and clot-busting drug paramedics had access to. Both techniques were previously undertaken only in hospital.
“It’s a significant factor in him being alive really,” he said.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
