A Brighton dad who survived a heart attack has been reunited with the ambulance crew who found him lying unconscious.
Cerwin Meijer, now aged 43, had been suffering with pain in his chest and arm throughout the evening of 21 July, 2022.
his wife, Marta, drove him to the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton. Unable to find anywhere to park, Marta said she would come back in a few hours to pick him up.
With no communication from Cerwin going into the early hours of the morning, Marta rang Royal Sussex Hospital, where she was told Cerwin had walked to a nearby shop while waiting for his blood test results, and had collapsed in cardiac arrest.
Thankfully, South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) paramedics Nathan Murphy, Megan Lewis, Victoria Keats and Donna Finnis were leaving the hospital after handing over another patient and found Cerwin lying on the pavement unconscious.
The crew began CPR and administered a shock with a defibrillator to regulate Cerwin’s heartbeat. Critical Care Paramedic, Gerry Davis assisted the crew, and together, after delivering an astonishing 11 shocks, the team achieved a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC).
Once stabilised, the crew transported Cerwin back to the hospital where he received further medical care for the next two weeks.
Cerwin and Marta were able to visit South East Coast Ambulance Service’s (SECAmb) Make Ready Centre in Brighton where they met ambulance paramedics Nathan Murphy, Megan Lewis, Victoria Keats and Donna Finnis, as well as critical care paramedic Gerry Davis, who were able to share some insights into what happened when they found him.
On visiting the team at SECAmb’s Brighton Make Ready Centre, Cerwin and Marta shared a short poem with the crew, reading: “When things go wrong and chaos thrives, paramedics race to save our lives.
“With sirens blaring, they arrive so quick, armed with humor and a bag of tricks.
“Clear! They shout, and then we jolt, back to life with a thunderbolt.
“Heroes with laughter, still, and might, they save the day, and then vanish from sight.”
Cerwin has had various tests to understand more about what happened that evening and why, more recently finding out that he had a blood clot that caused the cardiac arrest.
In order to aid his recovery, Cerwin has now stopped smoking and is taking every day as it comes, also returning to work very shortly after being discharged from hospital.
