Teen Who Survived Cardiac Arrest Teaches Classmates Life-Saving CPR

By Community Correspondent

A teenager who stopped breathing when his lungs collapsed has helped to train his classmates in the life-saving skills which saved his life.

Earlier this year, mum Donna Rosenwould collected her son Ollie, 17, from school as he wasn’t feeling well. Once at home, he was struggling to breathe.

“Mum, I need an ambulance,” Ollie said. Donna quickly called 999.

Ollie was on his hands and knees and then stopped breathing. He went into cardiac arrest – where the heart stops pumping blood and oxygen around the body.

Donna realised how serious it was. She added: “It was awful. Before I knew it, our house was full of paramedics and I could hear the air ambulance flying overhead.

“The paramedics took me out of the room to make space for them to begin chest compressions. I then heard the sound of the defibrillator and didn’t think Ollie was going to make it.”

Ollie, from Dagenham, has a condition which affects his connective tissues and was recovering from chest surgery at the time of the incident in May this year.

That day, Ollie experienced a tension pneumothorax, which is where air gets trapped between the lung and chest wall causing a build-up of pressure that collapses the lung and puts pressure on the blood vessels, heart and other organs.

Paramedics performed emergency needle decompression of the chest. This is a rare procedure for them to perform, where a needle is put through the chest wall to relieve the air.

Donna said: “London Ambulance paramedics saved his life. I keep replaying it in my head but thank God the ambulance crews were there. I dread to think what would happen if Ollie didn’t ask for an ambulance.”

Ollie was taken to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for specialist surgery to fix the air leak in his lung.

Recalling the support she received that day, Donna added: “While he was being loaded onto the ambulance, one of the paramedics pulled me to one side and hugged me. 

“She wanted to hug me – one mum to another. That got me through some tough times being strong for my boy.”

Following his recovery, Ollie invited London Ambulance Service to train his classmates at Jo Richardson School in Dagenham and was reunited with clinicians Finn Reddington-Haroun, Daisy Page and Nicky Ladrowski who saved his life.

Paramedic Daisy Page said: “It was great seeing Ollie look so well and helping to teach his friends how to do CPR.

“Last time we saw him he was so poorly and we don’t often meet our patients afterwards so it was really nice meeting him.”

Ollie added: “I’ve been wanting to meet the crews for a while and it was really great to see them. It’s long overdue but I really wanted to thank them.

“CPR training should be taught at schools everywhere – it’s so important. I’m living proof that cardiac arrest can happen to anyone or someone you know.”

Samantha Palfreyman-Jones, Head of Community Resuscitation at London Ambulance Service, said: “Ollie is an inspiration, and we were so delighted to meet him and his class mates and share some vital, life-saving skills.

“Our ambitious London Lifesavers Schools Programme aims to create a generation of lifesavers by teaching schoolchildren the simple skills to save a life.

“Performing chest compressions and using a defibrillator in the minutes before an ambulance arrives more than doubles a person’s chance of surviving a cardiac arrest. These are simple to do and will never harm a person.

“In London, 76 per cent of cardiac arrests happen at home. Children who learn these skills could end up saving the life of someone they love.”

Londoners are being urged to grab their tickets for the London Ambulance Charity’s first ever Christmas carol service to show their support for frontline staff who are already facing winter pressures with 999 calls rising.

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