I came awefully close to dying last weekend. I was playing in a rugby match and supposedly I took a heavy hit and it must have triggered something, as I went to feed the ball into the next scrum (I’m a halfback) and then walked to the sidelines clutching my throat (saying “I can’t breathe”) then I collasped and my heart stopped beating. Luckily for me, my team-mate’s father was on the scene and he was a dentist and performed CPR on me until the ambulance arrived soon after. Also extremely lucky, that the location we were playing was only a couple minutes drive from the emergency ambulance station, if it had been longer I don’t know what could have happened!
I can’t remember any of the game or of Sunday and most of Monday, so I don’t know what really happened apart from what people told me. The doctors released me yesterday afternoon and said they didn’t know what happened exactly. They did a lot of tests on me, I did a submax VO2 test (Bruce Protocol) on the treadmill for the doc and he said it was actually the highest score he had ever seen for a client.
Anyway, this was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. Words cannot describe how happy I am to be alive today, this morning. I’m going to go to university later today to see my friends and team-mates who were kind enough to send me flowers and visit when I was in the intensive care unit. I just had to write this, this morning - I feel like I’ve had more luck in the past few days than the biggest lottery winners in the world.
It sounds like God is demanding your attention. I would find out what he wants if I were you. He’s reminding you that he’s still out there and in control.
WOW! It’s good to hear that you made it! Sounds like one of those life changing experiences that will forever remind you how frail life can be.
It also reminds me of an old A-Dog article, entitled “Technology Trap”. Reminds us that we not only train to look and feel good, but to overcome tough situations where your training and conditioning might just save your bacon. Sounds like your hard work and effort may have made the difference.
Here’s a link incase you missed it.
The second to last paragraph of the article sums it up!
David - Good Luck. But find out what happened. You will need to keep pushing in order to do so. I played for 8 yrs. and got my bell rung more then a few times. You need to know why or the next time you might not be so fortunate.
DavidL - you are very lucky to be alive. Commotio cordis, or cardiac arrest caused by a traumatic blow to the chest is a very rare and typically fatal condition.
Many schools in the US (and possibly elsewhere) are purchasing automatic external defibrillators to shock the heart back into normal rhythm. In the US there have been some documented lives saved from athletes with commotio cordis from being struck in the chest with a hard ball (baseball, lacrosse). Also very good CPR is imperative to survival.
Good luck and spread the word that CPR and defibrillation save lives ? even in young and otherwise healthy athletes.
I’m not supposed to play rugby for 6 months, but I am going to give it up completely and just play other sports socially and concentrate on a career as a trainer.
It hasn’t really sunken in how lucky I am, I’m already back at university finishing off my assignments like nothing had happened.
In terms of training, still easing into back into weight training (very very gradually) and being very careful with my nutrition as I am unable to train properly and don’t want to pile on fat (I lost quite a few kilos in hospital).
I remember reading TC’s article a long way back. I guess training did save my life. I was one of the fittest on my rugby team aerobically and I remember doing sets of power clean+jerks with 100kg with my friend only a few days before the game, if I had been any weaker or less fit, I may not have made it. I never thought training would save my life one day…
I’m starting back really light, just walking around a lot plus I started doing really light weights under supervision. 2 sets of around 10, db press 20kg and lat pulldowns 40kg, not really applying too much force to the weights. Hopefully will get back to proper lifting and running again within 2 months.