Seaghan Kearney was lucky to survive a sudden cardiac arrest, but he says awareness about defibrillators saves lives, writes MARESE McDONAGH
YOU MIGHT IMAGINE that 30-year-old Seaghan Kearney would never forget the day he had a heart attack out of the blue, while playing five-a-side football with pals – and came within minutes of dying.
“The funny thing is I don’t remember a thing,” the secondary school teacher explains. In fact, Seaghan (pronounced Shane) lost five days out of his life, but he is happy to forget them and reckons the short-term memory loss is a small price to pay for all the healthy days still to come.
The Dubliner’s story is littered with happy coincidences which combined to save his life. His club, St Oliver Plunkett/Eoghan Ruadh, had like many other clubs, learned a lesson from the death of young GAA player Cormac McAnallen in 2004 by installing a defibrillator. (After he left hospital, Kearney wrote to McAnallen’s parents and thanked them for their awareness campaign).
Chillingly, the battery in the defibrillator was almost dead on the day he collapsed, but there was enough power left for two blasts, which revived Kearney and kept him alive until the ambulance arrived.
Many of his friends were so stunned when he collapsed that they were unsure how to react, having never used a defibrillator before, but luckily for Kearney, fireman Terry O’Brien was upstairs in the bar and rushed to his help.
“Terry volunteers there one evening every four weeks so I was lucky he was there – he saved my life,” says Kearney, who teaches maths and Irish at St Dominic’s girls’ school in Cabra.
The whole event was captured on the club’s CCTV cameras and is now immortalised on YouTube, a salutary lesson about how important it is for sports clubs to be prepared for tragedy.
“The Mater Foundation’s website has the video we made from the CCTV footage on its home page – the scary things is that there are 100 cases of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) every year on this island,” says Kearney. “Only five people are saved and I was lucky enough to be one of those.”
He believes that if there were more defibrillators – where people can get to them quickly and with batteries properly charged – many more could be saved.
To coincide with the Mater Heart Appeal, which runs until next Sunday, Kearney is backing the ACT campaign. The message for those clubs or community groups with defibrillators is that if they want the devices to be effective there are three important factors – Accessibility, Charge and Training (ACT).
“There is no point in having a defibrillator getting dusty in a locked office in the clubhouse with no one too sure where the key is,” stresses Kearney. “My experience showed how important it is to have it properly charged – they must be regularly checked and, of course, people must be trained to use them.”
The Dubliner had no prior warning that he was vulnerable to sudden cardiac arrest, but has since learned that he has a slightly enlarged heart muscle which sparked an electrical fault in his heart. Typically, SADS victims suffer unexpected heart problems while exercising.
“My life has not changed too much except that I have been told give up competitive football – and some of the lads will argue that that’s no great loss,” he says jokingly.
Doctors have also implanted an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) under his arm which will restart his heart should he have another cardiac arrest, something that doctors have stressed is very unlikely to happen if he does what he is told.
“I am told it would be like getting a kick from a donkey in the chest if it has to activate, but to be honest I don’t notice it at all,” said Kearney. “It’s the first of its kind in Ireland because it’s wireless. I keep telling people that I have Wi-Fi inside me and that I am connected to the internet.”
After Kearney’s sudden cardiac arrest, all his relatives were screened at the Mater Hospital’s Family Heart Screening Clinic, which to date has examined 1,500 relatives of SADS cases or people who suffered cardiac arrest. All of them got the all-clear.
“The day before it happened I travelled to Lough Rynn Castle in Co Leitrim with Mary my girlfriend because we are planning to have our wedding there,” says Kearney. “It’s funny that one day you are planning your future and the next day that whole future can be almost snatched away.”
To donate to the Mater Heart Appeal, which funds the family screening service, see materfoundation.ie
