Dying to tell miracle tale
IAN Jefferson is a dead man walking.
A massive heart attack temporarily claimed his life on a tropical island south of Cairns eight days ago, just hours into a belated honeymoon.
He spent seven minutes in cardiac arrest.
"I was dead, it was a full-blown heart failure," Mr Jefferson told The Cairns Post yesterday.
He has hailed as heroes the two men who brought him back to life.
Dunk Island Resort employee Brad Wicks and resident general manager Jason Yule performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation before using a defibrillator to shock Mr Jefferson back to life.
"It took two shocks - and seven minutes of working on him," Mr Wicks said.
The island's emergency medical officer, Mr Wicks had passed his Certificate 4 with First Response Australia just six weeks earlier and, although an experienced medical officer, had "never done anything like that before".
Mr Yule had basic first-aid knowledge.
The pair's nightmarish call-out was made worse by its timing - Mr Jefferson's heart attack happened on a night when storms prevented the Cairns rescue helicopter from rushing immediately to their aid.
A Mission Beach paramedic arrived later with the mainland;s water taxi operator, who was woken about midnight for the emergency.
Mr Jefferson, 60, was taken back to the mainland by boat, rushed to Tully Hospital then flown to Townsville Hospital where he spent six days in the cardiac ward and underwent surgery.
At Mission Beach yesterday with wife Juliana and her daughter, Justine Hurley, the English holidaymaker said he felt a "lucky chap".
"I don;t know how you can thank people for saving your life - and there were so many from Dunk Island staff to the water taxi man, medical staff and more," he said.
"I was lucky enough to have a heart attack in a place where people were able to bring me back and keep me alive until medics arrived.
"A 'thank you very much' sounds inadequate … but I thank everyone from the bottom of my now strongly-beating heart."
Mr Wicks said the incident illustrated the need for everyone to learn even basic first-aid and for courses to be taught in all high schools.
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Thankful to be alive: Honeymooners Ian Jefferson and his wife, Juliana, at Mission Beach resort The Elandra eight days after Mr Jefferson had a heart attack.
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