Mayo woman saves partner's life thanks to remarkable intervention

A MAYO factory employee has returned to work after making a full recovery from cardiac arrest thanks to the remarkable intervention of his wife.

Juris Lazduaskis, a 45-year-old resident of Cregduff, Ballinrobe, is back on his night shift at Western Brand, Ballyhaunis, after coming back from the brink of death a year ago.

The father-of-two's 'rebirth' has been described as 'truly miraculous' by members of the Mayo ambulance service and Irish community rapid response unit who attended to him when he suffered his heart attack on the morning of March 4, 2019.

But critical to his survival was the calm and assured action of his partner, Sanita Lazdauska, after contacting the 112 ambulance control emergency number when Juris fell ill around 7 a.m.

She recalled: “Juris turned blue and collapsed. He was not breathing and I feared he was not going to last long. When I called 112, they told me an ambulance would be at our home in a half an hour and my immediate response was that he won't be alive when it arrives.

“But the person at the end of the telephone told me what to do and I began CPR and they counted with me. I did not think it would be possible to keep doing it for half an hour but they kept me going and I continued pressing and pressing.

“I could not think about being scared. The pressure of the situation helped me to maintain compressions despite having never done CPR before. I knew if I did not keep it up, Juris would die. I had only one chance to save him. I was so relieved when the ambulance personnel arrived.”

Juris was still in grave danger at that point but Sanita's heroic efforts had given him a fighting chance of staying alive.

Martin Feely, a member of the HSE ambulance service based in Castlebar, said when he and his colleague, Gordon Nimmo, arrived at the house, they deployed the defibrillator.

“While Gordon continued to work on the patient, I went through the standard procedures to establish the cause of the caraic arrest. He had been a fine healthy man and there was no history of heart problems. We succeeded in getting his heart back to a normal rhythm and a decision was taken to transport the patient as quicly as possible to Galway University Hospital.

“I think Sanina's quick action and her capacity to recognise that her partner was not breathing proved critical in saving Juris as well her ability to perform CPR with the help of those who received her emergency call. What she did was perfect.

“This situation underlines the importance of everybody having CPR training. There is no question about that. It should be mandatory for all school and colleague students. It makes the difference between living and dying. The fact that Juris is still alive today is down to Sanita.”

Jason Horan, a consultant in emergency medicine at Mayo University Hospital who is also a volunteer with the Irish Community Rapid Response Unit, arrived at the house to assist in Juris's recovery and he accompanied him in the ambulance to University Hospital Galway where a surgical team was waiting.

He said: “It is unusual to get such a good result when there is such a time delay between the cardiac arrest and the medical team arriving.

“That's down to the good quality CPR from the very start and it proved so essential in this case. There is no doubt about that.

Gordon Nimmo said it was a very long and testing job for the team, but they never gave up.

“The outcome for everybody has been excellent and Martin's recovery can best be described as truly miraculous. The fact he returned to work less than an year after his attack is another remarkable feature of the story.”

Sanita organised a 'rebirth party' for Juris to thank everybody to helped them through a difficult time in their lives, most notable the ambulance team, the medical team at University Hospital Galway and their kind neighbours and friend in Ballinrobe where they have lived for the past 15 years.

“Our family is endebted to them all,” she added.