999 Critical Condition: North Staffordshire father-of-four escapes death following cardiac arrest
A North Staffordshire father-of-four was rushed to University Hospital of North Midlands’ major trauma centre after his heart stopped and he collapsed at home.
Ian Barton was found by his daughter after suffering a cardiac arrest in his Meir Heath home and will feature in tonight’s gripping episode of 999 Critical Condition on Channel 5 at 9pm.
Ian, a former engineer in the Royal Navy and who now works at JCB, was transferred to the major trauma centre at Royal Stoke University Hospital and as the team of medics and nurses battle to save his life, the worry is whether he has suffered any lasting brain damage when his heart stopped.
After calling 999 his wife Nikki, instructed by call handlers at West Midlands Ambulance Service carried out CPR. Today Ian said: “it was the day after my birthday and I’d been on my own most of the weekend while the rest of the family were rehearsing for a panto and I just collapsed.
“My wife performed CPR as my daughter repeated the instructions from the ambulance service. Between them they helped keep me alive before the paramedics arrived and I could be taken to hospital.”
In the episode trauma team leader and consultant in emergency medicine Dr Julie Norton says: “The survival rates are still very poor for those who have an out of hospital cardiac arrest. So we do absolutely everything we can in the hope that this is one of those who will survive.”
Ian spent 10 days at the Royal Stoke which included two and half days in an induced coma in the Critical Care Unit and has since been fitted with a defibrillator which will restart his heart immediately should it stop again.
He said: “They think my heart condition is genetic and now the rest of the family is being tested to see if they have it too. It was a very scary experience but I owe my life to not just the amazing support and care from the hospital but to my family too… and that costs me a bit now!”
Also in this episode Dr Norton battles to save a man who arrives bleeding so heavily that he risks losing his entire circulatory system; a patient is left with a gaping wound to his thigh after falling from a roof and another man has had a severe stroke and the blood supply to his brain is beginning to shutting down before a thrombectomy to remove the clot in his brain gives him the best chance of survival.
999 Critical Condition is on Channel 5 on Thursday 8 October at 9pm.