Ipswich cardiac arrest survivor Matt MacKinney recalls final moments before darkness

A first-responder for more than 16 years, Ipswich man Matt MacKinney has recalled the final harrowing moments before he entered 16 minutes of darkness.

Former Ipswich cop Matt MacKinney has found himself in some dangerous situations over the years, but a recent and sudden health incident brought him closer to death than ever before.

The 49-year-old was moving house with his wife Sharon, 41, and son Liam, 22, on a boiling hot day in late October, when he began experiencing sharp chest pains.

Matt said they came quickly and “like a tonne of bricks.” He sat in the cool beneath the air conditioner and, after some time, he called triple-0.

“He said, ‘I don’t feel well. I feel like I’m going to die’,” Matt’s wife Sharon said.

“He said he felt like his insides were melting. He couldn’t describe it any other way.”

Sharon said he made his way out to the front of the house at Thorn St and vomited, when his friend Brett – also of the Queensland Police Service – coincidentally stopped by to say hello.

“Matt said, ‘mate, I’m dying. I’m dying,” she said.

Brett immediately called emergency medical dispatchers and, after failing to reach Sharon’s mobile, had two Ipswich police officers go to her.

They knocked on Sharon’s door and told her there had been a “medical emergency”.

“I called Matt’s phone and Liam answered and said, ‘Mum, get here now’,” Sharon said.

“And just the sound of his voice.”

The first crew of paramedics arrived to see Matt go into cardiac arrest. Matt said he remembers telling them that he was dying.

“I had this impending doom. I knew I was going to die, there was no two ways about it,” he said.

“They tried to reassure me and I shut my eyes.”

Seven paramedics, including advanced care paramedics Samuel Gerber, Leticia Rawlings, Samuel Eager, Kelvin Archer, and Samantha Bedford and critical care paramedic Cameron MacLeod, worked to save his life.

Resuscitation was successful and, after 16 minutes and four shocks, Matt’s heart started beating again.

Matt’s son Liam witnessed the entire traumatising ordeal, saying at one point he just crumpled to the floor.

“I didn’t really have anything going through my head other than what I was seeing. I couldn’t really register anything else,” Liam said.

“Even afterwards, when he’d gone in the ambulance, … I just remember sitting there staring blankly at the wall for half an hour.

“I went to pick my girlfriend up from work and then as soon as I saw her and she got in the car I just bawled my eyes out. Everything hit me at once like a wave.”

Samuel Eager said it was “very rare” for someone to survive an experience like Matt’s and make a full recovery.

It would seem luck played a role in this story having such a positive outcome, with other contributing factors being that paramedics were on scene when Matt went into arrest as well as early defibrillation.

Matt was in hospital for just three nights and four days. He is doing incredibly well at present, citing short-term memory loss as the only real lasting impact.

On Monday afternoon, he was able to walk into the Ipswich Ambulance Station and express his gratitude to the officers – some of whom he had worked with on jobs in the 16.5 years he was a police officer – who saved his life.

He said he owes his “second chance” to the paramedics, Queensland Health, and the staff at Princess Alexandra Hospital, all of whom were “phenomenal” and professional.