An Aberdeen amateur football player has survived after suffering a heart attack on the pitch during a pre-season friendly.
James Kirkwood, a player for Stoneywood Parkvale Football Club, had the sudden attack on Monday.
The pre-season friendly match had to be abandoned at halftime as both teams administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until an ambulance arrived.
Mr Kirkwood soon regained consciousness and was taken to hospital where he is reported to be making good progress.
In a post on social media the club issued a “massive thank you to both clubs in acting so swift and of course the emergency services”.
Footballers having heart attacks
Heart problems have been an issue for fit and healthy football players in the past.
While playing for Denmark last summer, Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch and needed CPR and a shock from a defibrillator to save his life.
While the two terms are often used interchangeably, a cardiac arrest and a heart attack are different conditions.
A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to the heart is restricted, but a cardiac arrest is when it stops pumping blood around the body altogether.
Around 30,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year – with nine in 10 people dying from them.
Defibrillators can save lives
Defibrillators can be used to “shock” a heart back into its normal rhythm. They are used as well as CPR to get the heart working normally again.
More defibrillators have been getting installed in easy-to-access areas around Scotland.
Just this month, a Stonehaven garden centre installed a defibrillator on the outside of their building. Five have also been installed across Inverness city centre.
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