Reading man who suffered heart attack meets life saver

Michael Hagans (left) met Dean Goddard after he had helped save his life on 30 September

A man who suffered a heart attack playing football has met the first aider who helped save his life.

Michael Hagans, from Reading, said there were no signs of anything wrong before he collapsed on 30 September.

The first the 63-year-old knew of his heart attack was when he awoke from a coma in hospital two days later.

Mr Hagans thanked Dean Goddard, who used a defibrillator on him at SportsPark in Reading before paramedics took him to hospital.

"It's difficult. You can't put something like that into words. I can't thank [Mr Goddard and the emergency services] enough," Mr Hagans said.

"It was normal Friday night football. I came up and had apparently been playing for 20 minutes and supposedly I collapsed.

"I didn't know anything about it, there was no pain or anything. There was nothing to say that I had anything wrong with me as far as I was concerned.

"The first I knew about it was when I was brought out of the coma."

Symptoms of a heart attack can include:

• Chest pain - a sensation of pressure, heaviness, tightness or squeezing across the chest

• Pain in other parts of the body - it can feel as if the pain is spreading from your chest to your arms (usually the left arm is affected, but it can affect both arms), jaw, neck, back and abdomen

• Feeling lightheaded or dizzy

• Sweating

• Shortness of breath

• Feeling sick or being sick

• An overwhelming sense of anxiety (similar to having a panic attack)

• Coughing or wheezing

• Although the chest pain is often severe, some people may only experience minor pain, similar to indigestion. While the most common symptom of a heart attack in both men and women is chest pain, women are more likely to experience other symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain

Source: NHS

Mr Hagans left hospital on 6 October and is now on a course of tablets, some of which he will need to take for the rest of his life.

He has been told his recovery is going well, went on a 10-mile (16km) bike ride with his partner on Thursday, and could be able to play football again in a few weeks.

Mr Goddard, 31, said initially treating Mr Hagans was "scary", but his training took over.

"I just ran up to him and he was lifeless. It was scary to see and have that pressure on you to have to put your training into practice when up to that point it had all been theory," he said.

"I was quite calm; a calmness came over me. I thought I might be more worried but I felt like I just had a job to do and methodically went through it.

"I was quite lucky to be able to do some good."