Lifestyle

Man who was technically dead for 90 minutes explains what it was like

Man who was technically dead for 90 minutes explains what it was like
London Ambulance Service shares how you can help someone in cardiac arrest
London Ambulance Service

A man has shared details about his terrifying brush with death (for about 90 minutes) where he was revived by medics after going into cardiac arrest.

Alistair Blake, 61, from Australia was asleep in the early hours of the morning back in January 2019 when his wife of 35 years Melinda awoke to find her husband "gurgling."

Alarmed by this, Blake told news.com.au’s I’ve Got News For You podcast what she did next: "She [Melinda] grabbed her mobile phone and dialled triple-0 to get a hold of the ambulance and they instructed her to take me off the bed to be able to do CPR."

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Melinda gave her husband CPR for 20 minutes until the paramedics arrived, who then also did CPR and used a defibrillator on Blake "something in excess of 10 to 12 times."

"Technically, I was dead for 90 minutes," Blake explained as medics gave him the nickname "Lazarus" – the man who was raised from the dead.

Of course, when Blake woke up in a week later in Frankston Hospital he couldn't remember what had happened.

"I remember going to bed on the Saturday night – and the next thing I remember was waking up Thursday morning on a trolley going from ICU to coronary care."

"The human brain has totally blocked out what happened in between."

But what everyone wants to know is if Blake's near-death experience caused him to see things, and the short answer is no, but he explained: "A lot of people ask me if I saw anything, and no, I did not see anything. No bright lights, nothing like that whatsoever.

"It's a case of not knowing what's out there – but I don't mind about that, as long as I'm fit and healthy."

Blake was fitted with a pacemaker and discharged from the hospital 12 days later, The Daily Star reported.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)