Restart a Heart Day: Sports journalist Peter Kogoy brought back by CPR
Veteran sports journalist Peter Kogoy was clinically dead when two paramedics dragged him from his bed and lay him down in the lounge room of his Surry Hills home last month. He’s told his story to support Restart a Heart Day.
NSW
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Veteran sports journalist Peter Kogoy was clinically dead when two paramedics dragged him from his bed and lay him down in the lounge room of his Surry Hills home last month.
At age 68, with a history of cardiac illness and no pulse, neither intensive care paramedic Ben Morey or fellow ambulance officer Marty Flynn were bullish about their chances of saving Mr Kogoy’s life.
His heart had no rhythm to shock with a defibrillator so the men immediately began CPR, with Mr Flynn giving vigorous chest compressions on a frail Mr Kogoy.
“I do distinctly remember breaking a lot of Peter’s ribs … you can literally hear it, it’s horrible,” Mr Flynn said. “I think he’ll forgive me because he’s alive.”
Kogoy’s heart did regain a slight rhythm after four minutes and with a single shock from the defibrillator it started beating again.
Now-retired from a career of more than 40 years as a newspaper sports editor and journalist, including at The Australian and The Sun-Herald, Kogoy was humbled to have survived his September 8 heart attack, particularly after losing a number of his media contemporaries to illness in recent years.
“(The paramedics) worked their dinger off for me and never gave up on me … I can’t thank these guys enough,” Mr Kogoy said.
“We’ve lost some terrific people, some great industry people and that hurts. I’m the luckiest bloke in the world.”
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He had well and truly forgiven the men for his broken ribs and also thanked homecare nurse Katherin Agudelo who happened to be in the home caring for his wife when she began helping the CPR effort.
“I can’t stretch my arm out properly but the bruising’s gone … a small penalty to pay to still be breathing,” Mr Kogoy said.
The men have recounted the tale of Mr Kogoy’s survival to mark Restart a Heart Day being promoted by paramedics across the country on Friday.
Mr Morey said the key was acknowledging early whether someone who has collapsed has stopped breathing, before calling triple-0, beginning CPR and hopefully then using a defibrillator.
“The CPR was buying him time … it is what saved Peter’s life,” Mr Morey.
NSW Ambulance commissioner Dominic Morgan said “the sooner we can get someone to put hands on chest and a defibrillator on them, the sooner we might save a life”.
“The stats are shocking — for every minute a patient is in cardiac arrest and does not receive CPR or a shock from a defibrillator, their chance of survival drops by up to 10 per cent.
“Right around the developed world it takes around eight to 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
“Tragically, only one in 10 survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to walk out of hospital.”
Originally published as Restart a Heart Day: Sports journalist Peter Kogoy brought back by CPR