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May 9, 2024 17 mins

At just 17, Tom Haynes was not only the captain of his football team but also at his peak fitness. His life took a dramatic turn when he experienced a sudden cardiac arrest. Miraculously and thanks to the quick thinking of those around him, he survived. In this episode, Tom shares his harrowing journey from the brink of death back to life. With an unexpected ally—the Yellow Wiggle—Tom is now on a quest to raise awareness and equip others with lifesaving skills. 

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
High, fast out ghost.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
When it first happened to me, I had no idea
what a cardiac arrest is. I think the first thing
I asked Mum was, isn't it for old people? And
then because none of us really had an idea, But
when you look up for the statistics, it's pretty much
any age can suffer one good a.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm James Fantasy and this is Iheartfar South Coast, And
in this episode it really is all about the heart.
You see. It was on a fairly ordinary Thursday morning
on the eighth of June last year, that Brownlee College
student Tom Haynes suffered a cardiac arrest while he was
chucking a frisbee around with mates. Now, Tom is a
fellow that loves playing his Ossie Rules footy, and he

(00:39):
was in pretty good shape. But luckily on that day,
the quick thinking of those around him allowed Tom to
live to tell this very tale.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I went down like that, just like all the air
just sort of left and I just sort of fell,
and then apparently I started shaking and everything just went yeah.
I just lost consciousness, and then the teachers ran over.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
They sort of knew straight away.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
One of my mates went and ran and grabbed the
defibrillator and then one shock and I was back, but
I still don't remember coming back, but then I had to.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I got sent straight away to Muria Hospital.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Tom says he was probably the fittest and healthiest he's
ever been in the lead up to his sudden loss
of heart activity the night before.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So the Wednesday, which was the seventh, I went down
to Marimula for rep footage training and then the only
sort of thing I remember is going to training, driving
home from Marimbula, finally getting home, and then.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Just being really really exhausted.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
And then I do remember saying good night to my
mom and dad, and then waking up on the Friday
and just going where am I?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
And then I looked out.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Of the window in Saint George Hospital, and yeah, looking
out the window in an emergency and there was buildings,
and I was like, I was a bit lost. I
had no idea where I was. I'd just woken up,
and also I was very drugged out. But no, that's
pretty much all I remember.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Emergency doctor on the Far South Coast, Sam Tormy explains
the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
When we say that somebody is having a heart attack.
This is a shorthand term for a blockage in one
of the coronary arteries. These are the two arteries around
the outside of the heart which feed the heart muscle
with blood, allowing it to effectively work as a pump. Generally,
a heart attack will occur in older adults after years
of hardening of the arteries, cholesterol plaque build up. Eventually

(02:27):
there's a complete blockage in one of these narrowed arteries,
and this causes the typical symptoms we would associate with
a heart attack, such as chest pain, sweating, and shortness
of breath. This may precipitate a cardiac arrest, that is,
the heart may stop beating completely, but there are many
other causes of cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest is where

(02:48):
the heart completely fails as a pump. There is no
blood pressure. The patient becomes unconscious. They will die within
minutes unless action is taken.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Luckily, for tom, action was taken. And Automated external defibrillator,
better known as an AED, is a device that can
be used by anyone to perform CPR. It automatically analyzes
the heart rhythm in people who are experiencing cardiac arrest.
When appropriate, it delivers an electric shock to the heart
to restore its normal rhythm. PE teacher at Carroll College,

(03:20):
John Brady, was the man who called for the AED
and coordinated everything when Tom went down, while Tom's mates
Luca Brogan and Malachi Morton rushed off to grab the device,
which was easily accessible at the school. It's something Tom
Haynes says he's eternally grateful for.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh well, I mean, if they didn't, I wouldn't still
be here.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Well. Tom was rushed to Mario Hospital after the incident.
He was quickly airlifted to Sydney, only seventeen at the time.
He recalls waking up at Saint George Hospital around nine
o'clock the following morning.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Just remember waking up and seeing these two doctors around me,
and then I looked over and I had a machine
that was bping, and I don't know. It was just
a feeling that could only really ever be explained if
you've experienced it, And it was just one of those
type of feelings that I would probably never want to
experience again.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Could doctors give you any answers as to why this happened?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, We're still going through the process because I ended
up spending fourteen days at Saint George, which was a
very long time, not being able to go outside or anything,
just sitting in a room.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
But they were very good there.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
But the next check up we've got is through blood
tests to check whether it's genetic. They had that many
scans and I had every test under the sun. But yeah,
they couldn't find a definite answer.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
With no definitive explanation as to why this healthy, fit,
seventeen year old went into cardiac arrest. Doctor Sam told
me from Southeast Regional Hospital says, well, he can't speak
to Tom's case directly. The most common reason is an
electrical failure.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
In children and younger adults, a common cause of cardiac
arrest is a sudden failure or abnormality of the electrical
s system in the heart. There may be nothing wrong
with the arteries to the heart or the heart muscle itself,
but if the muscle have the heart the pump does
not receive the correct electrical stimulus to pump normally and rhythmically,

(05:16):
then it can stop pumping and the patient can suffer
a cardiac arrest.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
In New South Wales, the chance of surviving and out
of hospital cardiac arrest is ten percent, with just two
percent of people surviving without any signs of brain injury
or trauma, putting Tom into that lucky two percent. You now,
I have to live with a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

(05:40):
Tell us what that is.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's a long name.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, it's because I've got it underneath my left lateral muscle,
so it's about halfway between from my elbow to my shoulder.
It's about halfway between on my chest on the side.
I mean, I know it's there, but I sort of
just get on with it. If it was to happen again,
which is likely since the doctors have said, in case
it was to happen again, I've got it.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Doctor Tormy gives us a breakdown of how that little
device works.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Many listeners, we're familiar with the idea of a pacemaker.
Pacemakers have been with us for many years. In more
recent years, we've been able to add to the pacemaker
a device capable of delivering an electric shock to the
heart should it be necessary, and these are called implantable
defibrillator pacemakers. It's a fairly small box which sits in
the chest wall of the patient, and it's got a battery.

(06:32):
It's got wires which go down the veins into the
heart muscle itself. It can sense the electrical rhythm of
the heart and importantly, if necessary, it can deliver a
small amount of electricity down the wires to restart the
patient's heart should it be necessary. This is quite an
unpleasant experience, and I've met many people who've had the
experience of heard defibrillator going off. Many of them describe

(06:55):
it as being like being kicked in the chest by
horse from within.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Tom is now on a mission to get as many
AEDs installed across the Far South Coast as possible. So
I remember seeing this on Twitter at the time. You
had some special visitors while.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
You're Yeah, that was unreal. Meeting Luke Parker, that was
so cool.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, I got a video message from Isazac Heeney and
Chad Warner and Justin mcinhenni from the Sydney Swans.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, and I'm assuming a big Swannys fan.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Ah yeah he could say that.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, ah, and clear that you love your footy. But
you've now teamed up with a former Wiggle to kick
some new goals. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Dad sort of went through a loophole when I was
in hospital and just looking at all these sort of things,
and then saw, like we remembered that Greg suffered a
he collapse and stuffered a kadak arrest on stage well
he was performing at a Wiggles concert.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Tom's talking about the original Yellow Wiggle Greg Page in
sirt Wiggily hand gestures here. Greg founded Heart of the
Nation after he experienced a heart attack while performing on
stage at a Black Summer bush Fire, a relief concert
with the other Wiggles in January twenty twenty. It was
lucky the venue had an AED on hand.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
At the end of the performance, as we were leaving
the stage, I suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and basically
dropped dead. And had it not been for the intervention
of bystanders who called triple zero and started CPR immediately,
I would not be here today. So I'm very grateful
to those people who knew how to identify that I
needed CPR, and the fact that they called triple zero
and they kept going with that CPR untill and AED

(08:30):
arrived and they placed the pads from the AD on
my chest, and they shocked my heart back into a
normal rhythm and saved my life.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
And if the defibrillator wasn't there, do you think you'd
be alive today?

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Look?

Speaker 5 (08:41):
I possibly could be, because the ambulance wasn't too far
away after that. But the point is, without that AD
shock the heart rhythm that is cardiac arrest, the heart
rhythm can deteriorate into a rhythm that is not shockable.
So if the ambulance was further away in time, my
heart could have deteriorated into this rhythm called a sisterly,

(09:03):
which can't be shocked. So the fact that the AD
was there quickly and shocked my heart back definitely saved
my life.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
A lot of people say, they say, the lot at
the end of the tunnel, did you have any any
of that stuff going on?

Speaker 1 (09:15):
No?

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Look hypothesized about that a bit, And I think it's
because even though my heart had stopped beating, the guys
were keeping me alive with CPR, even though I was
sort of technically or clinically dead. I think I didn't
sort of actually leave the building per se, So I
think I was kept alive by the guys that were
doing the CPR, and they did a magnificent job, because
it's not a matter of just keeping someone alive, it's

(09:37):
about perfusing the brain with oxygen so that when that
person does quite they survived with all their faculties intact
and they are actually cognitive cognitively coherent, which I am
mostly when I stumble over the words like that. But yeah,
it's about a number of things. So CPR, good quality
of CPR is very, very important.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
It's one hell of an experience that you've gone through
a great Obviously you're a songwriter. Have you written a
song about it?

Speaker 5 (10:03):
Well, I have, Actually I've written two songs, so I've
released one already. It's on YouTube. It's called keep the
Beat Going, and that's a song about how to do
CPR and why you do it, and it was really
aimed at kids, I guess, because I think it's important
that people have CPR in their psyche from a young age.
So I've written that song and literally at the moment,
I'm just finishing off another song about the angels by

(10:26):
my side who saved me that night, and the fact
that we need more angels out in the community by
everybody's side to save more lives.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Can I ask did you have any warning signs or
existing symptoms of heart trouble before that?

Speaker 5 (10:37):
No, I didn't. It's a bit concerning really, the fact
that it was undiagnosed, but that's the way it is
for a lot of people, and that's why when it
happened it was a real surprise. I had no warning signs.
I had regular well if my cholesterol was in the
healthy range, didn't have high blood pressure, wasn't obese, don't smoke,
didn't have family history, so none of the sort of

(10:58):
traditional warning signs that would into the fact that certainly
on the night I didn't have any pain or anything
like that. So the heart attack that happened, it happened
very suddenly and sent my heart into sudden cardiac arrest.
So with a heart attack, you can get the warning signs,
and you can, in fact be a heart attack for
several days. Sometimes you can have that pain that goes on.

(11:18):
But we don't want people to let their heart attack
go on for days because what can happen is you
can go into cardiac arrest very quickly. So if you
ever do get warning signs of pain in the chest,
pain and the jaw or in the arm if you
feel fatigue or dizziness that's sort of unwarranted or unusual,
called triple zero straight away. They so called triple zero

(11:39):
straight away because you just never know what can happen
when you're having a heart attack.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
No room, as Tom Haynes wanted to give back. So
Tom's dad, Phil decided to reach out to Greg Page
to talk.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, and then it just sort of went from there.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Dad and Greg spoke and then they both organized charity
a day and then Yeah. That was held on the
eighth of October last year, Yeah, to raise money for
more public accessible defibs from Eden to Bateman's Bay.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
The event at Thenroma Golf Club raised close to eighty
thousand dollars. The cost of an automated external defibrillator with
the box and everything is around four thousand dollars, and
Tom says they've already installed a number of them in
towns including Maruya, Biddella, Dalmeni, Nroma and Burmaguwey. Yeah, Tom
and his dad also coming across some businesses along the

(12:26):
coast that are reluctant to install them.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
We've still got quite a few sitting at home because
we're still struggling to find spots to put them in
because the main problem that people were worrying about is
having three holes in the war, which is a bit
pathetic if you ask me.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
What do you want to say to those businesses?

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well as you can see an example of that a
cardiac arrest doesn't just occur to elderly people.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Because when I first heard it, I was.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Like, I had no idea, and then I think the
first thing I asked Mum was isn't it for old people?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
And then because none of us really had an idea.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
But when you look up sticks, it's pretty much any
age can suffer one.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
So, like I said before, at the end of the day,
how much is a life worth?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
How important do you think it is to keep getting
ads into more workplaces, businesses and schools across the far
South coast.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Oh, it's so important. It's just the same as having
an EpiPen.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Really, I mean it's under the same category because an
EpiPen you need to if you go into anaphylectic shock
or have an allergic reaction, and I mean you need
to have that quick response to get there in time,
because you only really have I think it's five minutes
to save somebody's life when they go into kardiak arrest,
because I think the brain's the last thing that goes
that lasts a bit longer than the when the heart

(13:40):
stops pumping. But really, there needs to be one in
a close proximity to each other enough so you know,
if you're in a regional area, it's easily accessible. Because
if you were out in a town that had one
on the other side of town, nobody's going to make
it there and back in three minutes. So I think
they need to be very visible in all locations and

(14:03):
pretty much everywhere.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
When Tom went into cardiac arrest, he was captain of
his local footy side, the Aroma Lions under seventeens, and
the one thing he couldn't wait to do again was
play footy. You made your comeback game on Saturday, just gone.
It was not only your comeback game, but your first
game of seniors. How did it go?

Speaker 5 (14:23):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
It was I'm getting all smiley thinking about it. Yeah,
it was an experience. I was very nervous because you know,
I was a bit worried how I was going to go,
How I was going to go because I've got to
wear a vest with padding on it, just to protect it.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's just what I have to do now.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
And Luke Parker sent me a video of him congratulating
me and wishing.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Me luck, which was very cool, so I couldn't disappoint.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I was so nervous that I felt like I
could throw up, and I felt that from the Friday
up until the first quarter. And yeah, running out with
all the boys was definitely an experience, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
You're not only got the fifty two point win over
the Maribula Diggers, but you were judged as one of
the best of field and you snagged a goal.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, I had the coach Funds line me up and
kicked it straight to my chest and then yeah, I
was more nervous about taking the grab than I was
actually kicking it because it was such a wet game
and it was a late game as well, so.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
We were under the lights. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to care.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
And that was a feeling after kicking it, and then yeah,
and then running up and everybody running around, and that
was a pretty cool feeling to kick a goal for
the first game playing seniors and first game back in
a year.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
They all got around me. Murmur Lines are such a.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Good club, undefeated so far this season, and in terms
of playing, is there any concern from yourself or your
parents or the doctors you know, obviously you mentioned you've
got to wear that vest, but any concerns about if
it will happen again or are there any extra risk factors.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
My sports cardiologists just said you've got to weigh the
goods and the bads. And when I heard that, I
sort of saw that as a you know, ur ok
to play, which because the pros and the cons, I'm
at risk of happening again.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
But we've set up an action plan.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I've got my own DFI in the car, which I
have to take with me, so I take that to
trainings and to the oval. And yeah, so far we've
done every step forward to, you know, making it as
safe as possible.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Tom is now working as a junior estimator in the
Aroma and while he still needs to have regular heart
check ups, he's living a full life with a bright
future ahead of him.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
I'm still trying to figure that out, but I sort
of realized come to terms with what's happened, and you know,
life's too short, must ring nearly got cut short at seventeen,
so why would I waste what I have left?

Speaker 1 (16:52):
You know, yeah, you sort of take every day as
a gift.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
It's always handy to know where a defibrillator might be sitting,
even though you never really look for one until you
need it. But the two EC and Power FM officers
in Gipps Street, Beaga and Orient Street, Bateman's Bay have
an AD on site, so does the DoD and Dwyer
Pharmacy just beneath our Marimbula office. You can also search
for AAD sites at NSW first a dot com dot

(17:18):
au and find out more about how you or your
business can help the cause at Heartofthnation dot com dot au.
That's all for now. On Iheartfars South Coast, proudly supported
by the New South Wales Government. I'm James Fantasy. Catch
you next time.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
iHeart Far South Coast
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