Cardiac arrest survivor urges others to learn CPR

Steve Shaw (right) suffered a cardiac arrest in 2023 and was resuscitated with the help of a defibrillator

A man whose life was saved by a defibrillator after he had a heart attack while cycling in a West Yorkshire village has encouraged more people to learn CPR skills.

Two off-duty paramedics came to the aid of Steve Shaw, 68, when he collapsed in 2023 in Marsden.

He was taken to hospital for surgery to fit a stent but had a further cardiac arrest while on the operating table, where medics used a defibrillator to resuscitate him.

Mr Shaw, who will help Yorkshire Ambulance Service show schoolchildren how to do CPR as part of a national campaign, said: "It is so important that everybody understands why we give CPR and that it increases people's chances of survival."

Mr Shaw, who has also campaigned for more life-saving defibrillators to be installed in Marsden, said: "We have had one young man in the village and at 16 years old, he actually saved somebody's life by using CPR."

Steve Shaw (centre right) has been campaigning for more defibrillators in Marsden

Mr Shaw said he had been lucky that two paramedics were passing by when he became unwell.

He had been out on a 25-mile cycle ride but after three miles said he had begun to feel unwell and decided to turn back.

But before he could return home, he collapsed.

"I must have gone unconscious for a short while," he said.

"When I came round, quite a few people had gathered.

"And that's when my luck changed because just at that moment in time, two off-duty paramedics passed by and they took over and stabilised me on the pavement there while the ambulance came."

The ambulance took him to Leeds General Infirmary, where he had another attack during surgery.

"I had actually died for a few minutes, they used a defibrillator to bring me back to life," he said.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service attended 11,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in 2024

Mr Shaw has now recovered and is back on his bike twice a week.

"If you do go into heart failure, the first four minutes is critical," he said.

"So CPR in the first instance is absolutely so important.

"It's really crucial that something happens in the first four minutes."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff and volunteers will visit 180 secondary schools across Yorkshire on Thursday to provide CPR training to more than 40,000 students as part of the Restart a Heart Day initiative.

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