David Ginola says he owes his life to his friends who gave him CPR and insisted emergency services persisted with resuscitation attempts after he suffered a heart attack.
The former Tottenham and Newcastle winger collapsed while playing in a charity match in Mandelieu in southern France in May 2016. Ginola swallowed his tongue and stopped breathing, leaving him clinically dead on the pitch for eight minutes.
But his friend and fellow footballer Frederic Mendy did not give up on him, valiantly performing CPR to keep the blood pumping while medics arrived with a defibrillator. Even then, Ginola was not safe, with initial attempts unsuccessful in restarting his heart.
