I was in the Canberra airport waiting for my big brother to get of the plane from Perth. My family were all standing because the seats were all taken.
I was teasing my Dad about his grey hairs showing in his very short beard.
A few minutes later my Dad made a terrible grunting noise and slurred his words as he fell first towards my mum, then reacted out to me and fell hard to the ground.
He couldnt breathe. We screamed for help and the police officers who were standing by the entrance came running to help, so did some people who were also waiting.
My Dad went purple. My little brothers and sister were crying and my mother was screaming to please help.
At that point, with the police officers doing cpr and asking questions frantically about his health etc… All I could do is cry and hold his hand.
I attempted to calm my little sister and brother. It was impossible. We watched our Dad go from red to purple to blue over and over and over. They would pump his heart and force air into his lungs until he got color back, then roll him on his side in case he vomited into his lungs. But as soon as he was on his side he would start going purple again.
Not that we knew it at the time, but my Dad was having a Heart Attack.
The police worked on him for what seemed like forever before the ambulance people got there and shocked him.
They raced him off in the ambulance and my mum went with him.
Somewhere in all that I had managed to call my girlfriend and she was on her way to pick us kids up and take us to the hospital.
I watched my Dad die over and over on the cold white hard floor of that airport, and before we were even picked up a lady had already mopped and sanitized it.
They put my Dad in a coma and cooled his body with ice pack things and pumped a cold fluid through his body to try and drop his temp so his brain wouldnt swell and cause more brain damage then what was already expected. They kept him cold for 24hrs to give his brain the best possible chance.
His skin was so so cold to touch, its something I will never forget.
The doctors discovered he had a heart attack previously and it went unnoticed… my dad would have only had a sharp pain and not even realized. But that had left the lower part of his heart completely blocked and it was pretty much dead.
His heart was keeping a good pulse all by itself. We were all so hopeful. But because his brain had gone about fifteen without oxygen the doctor pretty much told us my dad would be severely retarded.
All this happened on wed 16th and tomorrow my Dad is going under to have a pacemaker type thing put in his chest. He can walk, talk, tease us for being so worried and has a clear memory right up to eating pizza before going to the airport.
I still have my Dad. Thanks to being where we were at the time. Thanks to all the police officers who didn’t give up every time he went purple/blue. Thanks to the two nurses who were on my brothers plane who threw their bags and helped keep my dads body alive until the ambos came. Thanks to whoever the fuck controls this crazy world…. my Dad is alive, and he is now part of the tiny 4% of people who survive cardiac arrest using cpr out of a hospital and survive. That 4% includes those who live with brain damage…..and my daddy if perfectly okay. How lucky are we!
