The experience is something that has left its mark on Sandra.
“I had three cracked ribs from the CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and I was gone for 10 minutes before they got me back, which is terrifying to think about.”
On the night she took ill, Sandra thought she had indigestion because of her “hiatus hernia” – a condition common in the over-50s, where part of the stomach moves up towards the chest.
She alerted her husband when she began to feel an acute pain followed by a tingling sensation in her right arm.
As he tried to check if the local health centre was open in the middle of the night Sandra’s pain left her and she started “drifting off”.
“I was just falling into a deep sleep and he woke me, roaring at me, and shook me,” she said.
She was told by a doctor she was having a major heart attack.
Sandra was ventilated for 11 days in hospital and her four children flew out to Spain as it was feared the worst might happen.
It was not until February that she was allowed to fly home.
Even then she had to use a wheelchair, as she had experienced so much muscle wastage over her time in hospital.
She said it was “horrendous,” not just for her but for her husband and children.
“Never in a million years did I think something like this could happen to me.
“I was fit, healthy, ate really well, I had no worries about my health.”
Sandra also suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and has an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) fitted which is a small electrical device because she is at high risk of having another cardiac arrest.
Her heart attack and cardiac arrest continue to affect her life to this day and there are still days when she can “do very little”.
Even “something as simple as throwing a duvet on the bed”, can leave her breathless.
But she is upbeat and grateful to be alive.
“Not many people survive what my body put me through.”
