My heart stopped for 17 minutes

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

- LUCY LAING

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.

Victoria, who has no family history of heart problems, was allowed home, but over the next few months her heart stopped on several occasions, with the defibrillator shocking it back into rhythm each time.