Danny
07-01-2005, 08:35 PM
A MUST read.....
Dragon dead for six minutes
December 26, 2004
UNCONSCIOUS, face-down on Manly beach, two men thumping away at his chest. Mercifully, Kevin Ryan didn't know what had hit him.
He hadn't moved. Hadn't taken a breath in six minutes.
At seven minutes, he should have been clinically dead.
Then, suddenly, "I went whack and was gasping for life".
The former rugby league player, so tough that friends nicknamed him "Kandos" after the cement-producing town in central-west NSW, has no memory of the massive heart attack which felled him.
Yesterday, the legendary St George forward-turned-politician and barrister was just happy to still be around to create a few more Christmas memories with his friends and family.
It was a gathering Ryan realises he was lucky to attend.
The heart attack just over two months ago left the 70-year-old in a coma for three days.
For six to seven minutes not a breath was inhaled - generally regarded as the maximum time before a person is declared clinically dead.
It was at this point two off-duty lifeguards, Scott Riddington and Lee Burnes, brought Ryan back to life.
After a month of careful monitoring, Ryan was given the all-clear by specialists last week and he was was quick to tell The Sunday Telegraph of his gratitude to his rescuers.
"If those two weren't there, I wouldn't be here - simple as that," Ryan said from his family hideaway in northern NSW.
"I was on the outer limits of clinical death. I'd been out for at least six minutes.
"Interestingly, Scott told me that what kept him going - because normally after six minutes you are history - is that I hadn't turned blue. He said to me 'I was always confident I was going to get you'.
"Then finally I went 'whack' and was gasping for life.
"Now I'm around for Christmas and I'm getting better.
"I'm just very, very lucky."
On the face of it, Ryan has lived a combative life.
He played 15 years of rugby league and rugby union in the forwards, served as president of the rugby league players union, and fought for his community and clients in his respective roles as Labor MP and barrister.
But the biggest battle he faced was on that morning of October 26 outside the Manly Surf Life Saving Club.
It is a day he has no memory of, other than knowing he goes to Manly beach every day to slog his way up and down the sand as part of his renowned fitness regime.
"I don't have any recollection at all," he said.
"Apparently I had a run to Queenscliff and back and was talking to people and there was nothing unusual.
"Next thing I'm on my arse, or more specifically my face.
"It was out of the blue. I had no warning: no loss of stamina, I was still running (the beach) and sprinting the 100 metres at the end, I wasn't tired at work and there was no loss of energy.
"It was all about cholesterol. It keeps building up and forming plaques in the arteries until there is no room for blood anymore."
Ryan spent three weeks at Royal North Shore Hospital, of which the first three days he was in a coma.
When he regained consciousness, he gave doctors permission to carry out bypass surgery. Surgeons were forced to replace five arteries.
On his most recent check-up just over a week ago, Ryan was told by his cardiologist that his resuscitation was performed so well he had sustained no heart muscle damage, which means he can make a full recovery.
He organised straight away to meet Riddington and Burns at the Manly Skiff Club.
"I bought them a few beers and I intend on buying them a lot more," Ryan said.
"I only met Scott for the first time when I got out of hospital and was walking up The Corso at Manly and he came up and introduced himself to me.
"Here I was being introduced to the man who saved my life ... it was an amazing experience."
Riddington recently explained how he, with the help of Burns and fellow lifeguards Steve Hampson and Matt Schauer, revived the former footballer.
"We heard what had happened, so we raced downstairs and assessed the situation to discover Kevin wasn't breathing," Riddington said.
"I just rolled him over and started working on him, gave him five deep breaths and then checked his pulse -- but there was nothing.
"So I started CPR on him and one of the other lifeguards came down with the defibrillator and the oxygen and we set all that up.
"We had to shock him once, and we got a slight pulse, and then we kept doing CPR.
"After about six minutes we got a really good pulse and after about nine minutes he started breathing for himself. He was still unconscious by the time the paramedics got there but we had him breathing."
It is believed Ryan's high fitness levels helped him survive for as long as he did without oxygen.
He intends to watch footage of his resuscitation taken by the ambulance crew.
Ryan will spend the next month on holidays, before returning to Sydney for tests. He walked Manly beach before
heading north and says he intends to resume running in the New Year after consulting his cardiologist.
The experience has had a profound effect on one of the toughest footballers to lace on a boot.
"After something like this you wonder why you've been lucky," Ryan said.
"You wonder why these guys happened to be there at that time.
"You say to yourself you have to try and do something worthwhile with the rest of your life now, because you've been given a second chance."
The Sunday Telegraph
Dragon dead for six minutes
December 26, 2004
UNCONSCIOUS, face-down on Manly beach, two men thumping away at his chest. Mercifully, Kevin Ryan didn't know what had hit him.
He hadn't moved. Hadn't taken a breath in six minutes.
At seven minutes, he should have been clinically dead.
Then, suddenly, "I went whack and was gasping for life".
The former rugby league player, so tough that friends nicknamed him "Kandos" after the cement-producing town in central-west NSW, has no memory of the massive heart attack which felled him.
Yesterday, the legendary St George forward-turned-politician and barrister was just happy to still be around to create a few more Christmas memories with his friends and family.
It was a gathering Ryan realises he was lucky to attend.
The heart attack just over two months ago left the 70-year-old in a coma for three days.
For six to seven minutes not a breath was inhaled - generally regarded as the maximum time before a person is declared clinically dead.
It was at this point two off-duty lifeguards, Scott Riddington and Lee Burnes, brought Ryan back to life.
After a month of careful monitoring, Ryan was given the all-clear by specialists last week and he was was quick to tell The Sunday Telegraph of his gratitude to his rescuers.
"If those two weren't there, I wouldn't be here - simple as that," Ryan said from his family hideaway in northern NSW.
"I was on the outer limits of clinical death. I'd been out for at least six minutes.
"Interestingly, Scott told me that what kept him going - because normally after six minutes you are history - is that I hadn't turned blue. He said to me 'I was always confident I was going to get you'.
"Then finally I went 'whack' and was gasping for life.
"Now I'm around for Christmas and I'm getting better.
"I'm just very, very lucky."
On the face of it, Ryan has lived a combative life.
He played 15 years of rugby league and rugby union in the forwards, served as president of the rugby league players union, and fought for his community and clients in his respective roles as Labor MP and barrister.
But the biggest battle he faced was on that morning of October 26 outside the Manly Surf Life Saving Club.
It is a day he has no memory of, other than knowing he goes to Manly beach every day to slog his way up and down the sand as part of his renowned fitness regime.
"I don't have any recollection at all," he said.
"Apparently I had a run to Queenscliff and back and was talking to people and there was nothing unusual.
"Next thing I'm on my arse, or more specifically my face.
"It was out of the blue. I had no warning: no loss of stamina, I was still running (the beach) and sprinting the 100 metres at the end, I wasn't tired at work and there was no loss of energy.
"It was all about cholesterol. It keeps building up and forming plaques in the arteries until there is no room for blood anymore."
Ryan spent three weeks at Royal North Shore Hospital, of which the first three days he was in a coma.
When he regained consciousness, he gave doctors permission to carry out bypass surgery. Surgeons were forced to replace five arteries.
On his most recent check-up just over a week ago, Ryan was told by his cardiologist that his resuscitation was performed so well he had sustained no heart muscle damage, which means he can make a full recovery.
He organised straight away to meet Riddington and Burns at the Manly Skiff Club.
"I bought them a few beers and I intend on buying them a lot more," Ryan said.
"I only met Scott for the first time when I got out of hospital and was walking up The Corso at Manly and he came up and introduced himself to me.
"Here I was being introduced to the man who saved my life ... it was an amazing experience."
Riddington recently explained how he, with the help of Burns and fellow lifeguards Steve Hampson and Matt Schauer, revived the former footballer.
"We heard what had happened, so we raced downstairs and assessed the situation to discover Kevin wasn't breathing," Riddington said.
"I just rolled him over and started working on him, gave him five deep breaths and then checked his pulse -- but there was nothing.
"So I started CPR on him and one of the other lifeguards came down with the defibrillator and the oxygen and we set all that up.
"We had to shock him once, and we got a slight pulse, and then we kept doing CPR.
"After about six minutes we got a really good pulse and after about nine minutes he started breathing for himself. He was still unconscious by the time the paramedics got there but we had him breathing."
It is believed Ryan's high fitness levels helped him survive for as long as he did without oxygen.
He intends to watch footage of his resuscitation taken by the ambulance crew.
Ryan will spend the next month on holidays, before returning to Sydney for tests. He walked Manly beach before
heading north and says he intends to resume running in the New Year after consulting his cardiologist.
The experience has had a profound effect on one of the toughest footballers to lace on a boot.
"After something like this you wonder why you've been lucky," Ryan said.
"You wonder why these guys happened to be there at that time.
"You say to yourself you have to try and do something worthwhile with the rest of your life now, because you've been given a second chance."
The Sunday Telegraph