My heart stopped for 17 minutes

BACK FROM THE DEAD TO HAVE BABY & TRANSPLANT

- BY LUCY LAING

VICTORIA Thomas was in the middle of boot camp at the gym when her heart stopped beating.

The netball-loving sports enthusiast had started to feel exhausted after a weightlifting session.

She recalls: "I said to my friend that I didn’t feel like I had any power or energy, like it had just drained from my body. I was also feeling slightly dizzy. I’d only just said it when I suddenly collapsed on the floor."

The 35-year-old accountant had gone into cardiac arrest.

An ambulance arrived within minutes and paramedics started CPR - but as the clock ticked on with no result, fears rose that Victoria's heart had stopped for good.

She says: "When it happened, it went black and there was nothing, then I became aware of looking down on my body. I was floating near the roof and was looking down at myself on the gym floor. My first thought was that my legs looked really fat.

"And when I looked at a photo of myself taken just minutes before I collapsed, I could see that my legs were actually swollen.

"I didn't see a light, or feel peaceful, I was just watching myself, and I could see some yellow machines around me."

Eventually, after 17 minutes, Victoria's heart sprang back into life.

Now 41, she says: "They never gave up on me. The minutes ticked by, but they refused to stop trying. I was so young, fit and healthy and it had come completely out of the blue."

Victoria was taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary, where she spent three days in a coma.

Again, she pulled through and doctors fitted her with a defibrillator to restart her heart in the event her body went into cardiac arrest again.