A Scottish mum who performed chest compressions on her 11-year-old son after he stopped breathing following a cardiac arrest in a swimming pool has said it was "one of the most traumatic experiences of my life".
Martina McGeehan, 45, added that "it was awful - absolutely horrendous" and said that her son Leonardo Osorio McGeehan "was gone" after his heart stopped beating and she started frantically doing CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an emergency chest compression procedure. But as a result of the near tragedy, the medics also diagnosed that the lad suffered from Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, where the heart has extra tissue that causes palpitations.
Mum Martina, who had trained to do CPR and who has lived in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates for the last five years, explained that she and her children had been playing in the pool at their building when Leonardo suddenly said that he was not feeling well and his head went underwater. His mum and sister, not named, as well as a couple who were also in the pool, pulled him out of the water.
Leonardo owes his life to his mum and to the speedy arrival of an ambulance and the police, with medics using a defibrillator to stabilise him before taking him to hospital. Leonardo luckily survived and Martina said that she now feels "exceptionally lucky".
She explained: "It is a bizarre thing to say but we were lucky. We were lucky that this happened outside where I was surrounded by people to help. Imagine if this happened while he was at home.
"We were lucky because of all the amazing help we got from everyone."
She said: "We were tossing a ball in the pool when my son said he was not feeling well and started going under the water. With the help of my daughter and a couple at the pool, we got him out of the water.
"He was struggling to breathe, and his eyes were rolling back. It seemed like he was having a seizure. I immediately started performing CPR, and called the police to tell them my son was not breathing and had lost consciousness."
She said that she continued to perform chest compressions until the police and the mandarins arrived. Martina added: "By then, people from the building had gathered around and were helping us out."
After the ambulance arrived, paramedics took over from Martina, using a defibrillator on Leonardo before taking him to hospital. He was then intubated and placed in the intensive care unit with doctors then discovering that he was suffering from a congenital heart defect.
The condition, called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, is believed to affect between one and three people out of every 1,000 worldwide. Leonardo was then taken to the Burjeel Medical City in Abu Dhabi for further treatment.
Dr Christopher Duke, a consultant paediatric cardiologist at the hospital, told local media: "Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome is a fairly rare disorder that affects [up to three] in 1,000 people worldwide. In simple terms, the patient had an extra piece of muscle inside his heart that caused abnormal electricity.
"Children with this syndrome usually present with palpitations, and it is very rare for such patients to suffer a cardiac arrest. In my career spanning over 20 years, this is only the second case I have seen where a patient with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome suffered a cardiac arrest."
Dr Duke, reportedly an expert paediatric electrophysiologist, said they will perform a paediatric radiofrequency ablation, a minimally invasive procedure, to treat Leonardo's condition. Leonardo reportedly had a second cardiac arrest at the hospital but has since recovered and been discharged after the initial incident, which took place in February.
His grateful mum told local media: "This could have been a completely different story."
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