Kev McPhee-Smith is a lucky man. And he knows it.
“I’m never buying another lottery ticket in my life,” the 58-year-old cyclist from Drumoak in North Deeside says. “I’ve used up all my luck.”
On July 22 last year, Kev had a cardiac arrest while cycling east down the A93 just five minutes from his house.
By sheer coincidence, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary senior staff nurse Donna Duncan was driving in the opposite direction.
She saw Kev wobble on his bike and then — in her side mirror — topple to the ground.
Donna reversed into a nearby layby to see what was wrong. Two other people also stopped and were checking if Kev, who was lying unresponsive on the ground, was ok.
Donna quickly told the older of the pair to call for an ambulance and started chest compressions to keep blood flowing to Kev’s brain.
‘I saw a bike and some feet’
As an ARI nurse, Donna is well-versed in the art of CPR. However, manual chest pumping is hard work and less than three minutes in, Donna was starting to tire.
This was when Grampian medical emergency department advanced nurse practitioner Menna Forgrieve, who was on her way home from the chiropractor, drove past.
“I saw a bike at the side of the road and I saw some feet,” explains Menna, who has 17 years’ experience in intensive care units and was able to take over the compressions. “So I pulled over to see what was going on.”
For Donna, Meena’s arrival was a huge relief.
“When she came over and said ‘Can I help? I’m an advanced nurse practitioner’ I was like, Oh my God, thank goodness, you’re here.”
But that was not the end of it. Next to drive by the scene was former ARI nurse Megan McLeod, who is now a school nurse. She just happened to have a Laerdal mask, a special face covering that aids resuscitation.
The group was completed when former staff nurse Zoe Meldrum, who was also driving past, stopped to lend a hand.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Donna says of the moment. “What are the chances that four of us would be there?”
When the paramedics arrived, they took over CPR duties and after an hour or so of compressions rushed him to hospital.
In total, Kev’s heart stopped for 25 minutes.
A miracle on the A93
Amazingly, Kev went on to make a full recovery. The miracle was largely down to the immediate roadside treatment he received from Donna, Menna, Megan and Zoe.
So, last weekend, to thank the nurses for saving his life, Kev and wife Anne Shearer invited all four for lunch at Mains of Drum garden centre, just up the road from where Kev came so perilously close to death that July day.
The group shared their memories of the day, while Anne and Kev fought back the emotions to show how grateful they were.
“It was a tearful reunion,” says Kev, who turned up in a T-Shirt that made everyone laugh.
The get-together was also a reminder of the entire month Kev lost to the incident – he doesn’t remember anything past leaving his house.
“I met Donna when I was in hospital, but I’d never met any of the other three before,” he says with a smile.
‘The longest 13 minutes of my life’
For everyone involved, it is difficult to understate just how lucky Kev was that day. Less than 5% of people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
“It was the longest 13 minutes of my life,” says Menna of the wait for the paramedics to show up. “But I just wanted to make sure Kev had good quality CPR until the people with the skills and equipment could be there.”
Donna, meanwhile, is amazed at how quickly the four nurses fell into sync with each other, working on Kev’s heart in a chain.
For her, it underlines the importance of first aid classes so others can help if caught in a similar situation.
“As nurses, we’re trained to do CPR,” she says. “But if Kev hadn’t had that then it would have been a different story.”
Kev’s survival is one thing, but that his brain also emerged unscathed is, says Menna, “phenomenal”.
And while the outcome means Kev can carry on with his life, and eventually get back to cycling, it has had an effect on his saviours too.
“It might sound daft, but I don’t have to beat myself up that I did anything wrong that day because he recovered,” Menna says.
“There was a whole lot more that went into it other than us pumping his chest, but it is amazing. And it has reinvigorated in me the sense of this is why I do what I do.”
You can learn how to perform CPR for free on the British Heart Foundation’s website here.
